Breaking Free
by themeanbasketball
Summary: On his 16th birthday, Chad receives a special basketball from his parents and it changes the course of his high school career... [chadxryan]
1. Chapter 1

It was 2nd July, Chad's sixteenth birthday. He sat up and looked around his room, at the framed pictures of famous basketball players covering the walls. His father had put most of them up while he was at school. He wondered when his parents would come in with his presents, as they did every year. All of his previous gifts from his dad were under his bed, forgotten about: a hockey stick, a football, a set of golf clubs. No matter how unenthusiastically he received the gifts, he could never convince his father that he wasn't interested in team sports. The only good thing that had come out of basketball was the money his dad gave him when he won - this had meant he could save for a car, and drive to dance competitions when his parents were away on many trophies that he had won were hidden in the back of his closet. No one could ever know about them.

The door opened, and in came his parents. His mother had brought pancakes with a candle in them, something she had done every year since that one time that he choked on a piece of cake. His mother was quite overprotective. He had tried to tell her that basketball was dangerous so he didn't have to play anymore, but unfortunately she approved of exercise.

'Happy Birthday, son!' his parents exclaimed, after they had sang the song. They were smiling widely and presented Chad with a spherical parcel, wrapped in paper with footballs on it.

Please not more sports equipment, Chad prayed. He tried to look excited as he tore off the paper. It was a basketball. _Another basketball_. Like he didn't already have at least five. What was his dad thinking?

'Um...thanks,' he said. 'This looks...um...really good.'

His dad seemed not to sense his reluctance and grinned. 'How about we test it out right now?' he asked.

'Wow, I wish I could but...homework. I have a lot of homework.'

'It's summer vacation,' his mother reminded him.

'Well sure, but I have to catch up. I'm behind because...because I play so much basketball,' he said, looking at his mother hopefully.

His dad frowned. 'OK,' he said. 'But this is quite some basketball, you know that?'

How the hell is it any different to all the others? thought Chad, grumpily. He forced a smile. 'Yeah, it looks great. We'll play later.' Not if I can avoid it, he thought.

Thankfully, his mother intervened.

'Michael, I don't think that's a good idea,' she said disapprovingly. 'If Chad really is falling behind then maybe he should take a break from basketball for now?'

His parents both turned to look at him. He fought the smile threatening to break out onto his face.

'Oh, no… anything but that,' he said.

Eventually, his parents left him alone to do his non-existent homework. Chad sighed. It had been a good idea at the time to complain about homework but the excuse meant that now he couldn't go out. He looked at the basketball, which was lying on the bed in front of him, a piece of wrapping paper still stuck to it. He tossed it aside and lay back down, figuring that if he couldn't go out, he might as well get some more sleep. Pretty soon he had drifted off and began to dream. He dreamt that he was on the basketball court at school, in the middle of a game. Oh great, he thought. Now it's even getting into my dreams. But then, over the yells of the crowd cheering him on, he heard a voice. He spun round, looking for whoever was speaking, but couldn't see anyone. _Chad_ , the voice said. He looked around again. The voice was getting closer. He watched as Troy passed the ball to Zeke, who threw it to him. When he heard his name again, there was no doubt who was speaking. The voice was coming from the ball in his hands, the very same one his parents had just given him. Chad stopped, and looked down at the ball. 'What the hell?' he said. He looked around to see if anyone else had noticed, but the game seemed to have been put on pause. No-one was moving, and all he could hear now was the voice. _You and I can win this, Chad,_ it said. _That's all that matters now._

'I don't care about winning,' he said. 'I don't even want to be here.'

 _Imagine how happy your father will be when you win,_ it said.

'He doesn't care about my happiness, why should I care about his?' replied Chad, bitterly. But he found himself slightly convinced by the ball. What if I could be the one to make the team win? he thought. He imagined how it would feel to be the most important member of the team. His friends would have to take him seriously then, and his parents would be so proud. _You see?_ said the ball. _With my help you could become the most popular boy in school, everyone would want to be just like you! So what are you waiting for? Use me to score the winning basket._ As the ball said this, the dream-game started up again. Chad could see opposing players running towards him to take the ball, his teammates were shouting and the crowd was cheering. Chad waited just one moment, looking back down at the ball.

'More popular than Troy Bolton?' he asked.

The ball didn't reply, but Chad already knew the answer. He positioned the ball in order to shoot. He took a deep breath, jumped, and let the ball fly. The entire gym seemed to slow down. The ball soared straight into the net. Chad saw his father smile at him from the bleachers, then suddenly, the room seemed to erupt. The crowd was screaming his name and his friends were cheering. He saw Troy hug Gabriella and then her mother in turn, before jumping on Chad and starting a group hug. Standing quietly next to his sister, Ryan Evans was watching him, a smile on his face.

'Chad, you're the best!' exclaimed Zeke. Chad couldn't remember feeling this happy before. He looked around at his friends. This is what high school was supposed to be like. And it could be, maybe, if he listened to this weird basketball's freaky advice.

When he woke up, the ball was in his hands.


	2. Chapter 2

'Chad...' a voice said, waking him from his slumber.

Chad sat up.

'Get your head in the game, Chad,' the voice said again.

Chad sighed and hit his alarm clock. His dad must have set his alarm again. He was obsessed with basketball. When would he learn that Chad wasn't? Never, since Chad didn't think he could be brave enough to tell him. He took a shower and got dressed, putting on a new T-shirt that said 'I majored in vacation'. It was the first day of his junior year at East High, and he was not looking forward to it. He wasn't very good at anything that wasn't sports and he didn't even like a lot of those, but he had to do them anyway, basketball included, of course. He was ready about two seconds before the bus arrived, and he had to run to catch it. For some reason, he was carrying the basketball his dad had given him. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like he should take it to school. He sat down on the only free seat, but when he turned to look out of the window he was met with a death glare. Taylor was sitting next to him reading, a pile of books balanced on her lap. Taylor had never liked him, but he knew it wasn't personal. She disliked most people, but especially jocks. He spun the basketball nervously on his lap. After a few seconds of this, Taylor looked up from her book and snapped, 'Can you stop that? Some of us are trying to read.'

'Sorry.'

'Not that you'd know anything about that.'

'What does that mean?'

Taylor sighed. 'All you jocks care about is basketball.'

'That's not true. I'm in your class, Taylor. I know as much about that as you do.'

'OK, fine. Pronounce this right, and I'll believe you.' She pointed at a word on the page, passing him the book.

'I don't need to prove I can read. And anyway, basketball isn't easy. I'd like to see you shoot a hoop sometime.'

'Just do it.'

Chad took the book from Taylor and stared at the page. All the words were jumbled in front of his eyes, but they slowly began to arrange themselves into the same word, over and over again.

'Erm...' Chad looked harder at the page, not believing what he was seeing. Basketball? Why was Taylor reading a book that just said 'basketball' over and over? He thought it was a science book. 'Um...basketball?' he suggested.

'Haha, very funny,' said Taylor. 'Try again.'

So it didn't say 'basketball'? But that's what he was seeing. He tried to think of a science word.

'Photosynthesis,' he said. Third grade science had helped him out yet again.

Taylor said nothing, just frowned and grabbed the book.

The bus pulled up outside the school. Chad grabbed his bag and basketball and briskly walked as far away from Taylor as he could. He met his best friend, Zeke, outside of class and they grabbed seats together at the back.

'Hey dude, I baked you a cake!' exclaimed Zeke, who liked baking. It had a marzipan wildcat on it.

'Cheers man!' said Chad, and he took a bite. Inside, the cake had rainbow stripes. 'Oh wow bro, that's cool! How did you make it like that?' Zeke opened his mouth to answer when Troy strutted up sportily. He bounced Chad's afro like a basketball.

'Yo bro, how's it hanging?'

'Hi Troy,' said Zeke chirpily. Troy ignored him, because Zeke wasn't very cool as last year he had told everyone his about his secret love for baking. Chad grunted and nodded his head at Troy, his mouth still full of cupcake. Troy then turned on Zeke.

'Did you make me one, bro?'

Luckily for Zeke, Miss Darbus strode in and claimed their attention.

Somehow, Chad had made it through the first day. School was so _boring_ , why did it exist? All he wanted to do was get to his dance lesson, but before he could get to this, he had to endure basketball practice. In the locker room, he saw that Troy had a picture of his girlfriend, Gabriella, on the inside of his locker door. She looked older than she did in person, but Chad figured that maybe the camera did that to people. He didn't have any pictures in his locker. His kit was screwed up in a ball at the back. Troy's was ironed and folded. He took the jersey out and shook it. It had been in there all break and was starting to smell. He wondered if his dad would understand how much he hated basketball if he could see this stupid jersey. As always, the rest of the team were ready much faster than him, leaving him in the locker room while they headed into the gym. Chad looked at the basketball his parents had given him, which he had rested on the bench beside him. Without really thinking about it, he picked it up and went out into the gym.

'Hey,' he said. 'You mind if we use this one today?'

Jason laughed. 'Is it lucky?'

'I don't know. Maybe.'

'It doesn't matter which ball we use,' Troy said. 'It's just a ball.'

The rest of the team gasped. They were very superstitious and if a ball was lucky then they were damn well going to use it. Coach Bolton entered the room.

'I hear you've got a lucky ball?' he asked Chad.

'Um...I don't know.'

Coach Bolton smiled. 'Worth a shot,' he said. 'Not that you Wildcats need it. This is gonna be a good season, I know it.'

'Well...OK,' Troy said, reaching for the ball. Chad threw it to him. Suddenly he felt very alone.

After stretching, practice started with a warm-up match. Chad was not on Troy's team. He resigned himself to losing, not that he cared either way. The whistle blew and Chad half-heartedly jumped for the ball - no way was he going to beat Troy to it. But the unthinkable happened and he found himself holding his basketball. He looked around the gym. He had a feeling like all of this had happened to him before, and it wasn't just because he'd been on the team since freshman year. It was just like in his dream.

 _Hello again_ , said the ball.

'No,' Chad whispered. 'This isn't real. This can't be real.'

'Chad, over here!' shouted Jason.

 _Come on_ , said the ball. _You want to play, don't you?_

Chad threw the ball but as it left his hands he knew that it would not reach Jason. He shut his eyes, sighing. Why did he believe that the ball would make him good? But as he opened his eyes he saw Jason catch the ball. How? He ran ahead, feeling faster than usual, more agile.

'Jason!' he yelled. 'Over here!'

Jason grinned and threw the ball back to him. It soared over the heads of the other players and Chad caught it expertly. He turned around, closed his eyes and pitched the ball into the net. His teammates cheered and Coach Bolton was clapping.

'Chad, that's the best I've ever seen you play!' Coach exclaimed. 'Where have you been hiding that skill?'

'Uh… I just… practiced a lot over the summer, I guess?' answered Chad. He saw Coach glance at the ball in his hands. He nodded.

'Good job,' he said.

Chad perked up a bit. He was still confused over what had just happened but if his coach and his team were happy with him then it was all good, right? And if he was really good at basketball now then it wouldn't be quite so tedious.

Before he knew it, practice was over for the day. This was the fastest it had ever gone! Chad almost didn't believe that it was over and thought his team were playing a trick on him. For once Chad hung around in the locker room to chat to his friends but as he was finally leaving he remembered that he had something very important to do today.

'Shit!' he exclaimed. 'I'm going to be late for that competition!' Chad took the fastest bus home and ran upstairs.

'Hi honey, how was your day?' asked his mom, but Chad did not have time for this. He grabbed his dance bag and ran back out the door, shouting bye to his parents as an afterthought. He jumped into his car and sped off, hoping to make it on time.


	3. Chapter 3

Ryan Evans stood in front of the lit-up mirror in his dressing room. His sister Sharpay insisted on private dressing rooms for both of them, and since they were the dance school's most well-known students, they put up with her demands. Like everyone else did, mostly, including Ryan. The first round was for singles but they were dancing as a pair, and Sharpay had coordinated their outfits as usual. While she would be wearing a silver sequinned tutu, he had on a silver and black ankle-length leotard, which was decorated with matching silver sequins. Last night, their housekeeper had spent two hours glue-gunning rhinestones to his ballet shoes while he and Sharpay rehearsed. He wasn't particularly worried about the competition. He and Sharpay had won this one every year since they were six. Sharpay was getting all worked up as per usual though, and was snapping at him whenever he tried to speak. He hated it when she got like this. Contrary to popular belief, Sharpay was only a control freak most of the time. Sometimes, she could be pretty nice. Not today, though. He heard a loud knock at the door and before he could even answer it, she burst in.

'We only have seven minutes until we're on, Ryan!'

Ryan nodded as he continued to primp. 'How's the competition looking?' he asked.

Sharpay laughed. 'I'm pretty sure most of them are just lost,' she said. 'But still, we can't be complacent. We have to be the best. Do you remember what I said yesterday?'

'Don't do the jazz squares,' Ryan said. He was secretly disappointed about this (jazz squares were a crowd favourite) but understood since this was a ballet competition and jazz squares were not appropriate. He may not always respect his sister's rules, but the rules of dance were unbreakable. They heard their names being called so they hurried to the side of the stage where they would perform. The act before them was just finishing, and they did not look good, thought Ryan. At some point during their dance, they had each lost a shoe. Never a good sign. He smiled as the pair hobbled towards him. As usual, Sharpay had no time for this. She was watching the announcer like a glittery, dance-obsessed hawk.

'OK...' the announcer said, flicking through the cards in his hand. 'Next up we have Ryan and Sharpay Evans.'

Sharpay scowled. 'They were supposed to put my name first,' she whispered. Ryan apologised, although it was not his fault that his name came before hers in the alphabet. Sharpay shook her hair out over her shoulders, grabbed Ryan's arm and marched them both onto the stage, a beaming smile on her face. Polite clapping was heard from the audience before their music started playing. As the opening notes to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy were heard, Sharpay and Ryan began to move. They began slowly and simply in terms of technique but as the song progressed their moves became more and more complicated. Ryan knew he was good, but his sister was the real star. Her pointe work was far beyond the level of the rest of the competition and as she moved she looked like she was floating - just like a real fairy! Their lifts grew to be longer and more dangerous, the audience gasping with the thrill and grace of the twins' movements. For a split second Ryan looked over at the other competitors and glimpsed someone he was not expecting to see. Confused, Ryan snuck another look to check if his eyes were deceiving him. They were not. It was none other than Chad heckin' Danforth, sat staring at him. He would have recognised those eyes anywhere. But what on earth was that jock doing here? Ryan froze, staring. Chad did not seem to have realised that Ryan had seen him but Ryan was so shocked at his presence that he had completely forgotten about Sharpay, who he had just thrown gracefully into the air. Her landing was not so graceful, and was accompanied by a loud crash and a furious shriek. The audience gasped and a few of them shot to their feet. Ryan was also worried and ran over to her, but Sharpay managed to get up on her own.

'What the hell, Ryan?' she hissed, while keeping a smile plastered on her face. 'Quick, we need to finish!'

Ryan bowed hastily as Sharpay curtsied, wincing slightly as she did so, and Ryan realised that she had not got away from that fall completely unharmed. He, too, would not get away from this unscathed. Sharpay was going to kill him for this, he thought, and he began planning what he would need to pack for a visit to Australia. He had no idea how he was going to explain why he'd dropped her like that. He could hardly tell her that Chad Danforth was to blame. Not only would she never believe him, but he also didn't really want anyone else to know about this, for some reason that he could not explain. And what was Chad doing there, anyway? Ryan reckoned it was the first time he'd ever seen him without his beloved basketball posse. Could it be that there was more to him than just a dumb jock? Ryan was not sure, but this definitely needed checking out. Since he and Sharpay were the final act before the results were announced (another one of Sharpay's requests), everyone took a break. Ryan ran away from Sharpay and hid near the toilets. He was still thinking about the Chad Danforth issue when he bumped into someone and knocked them over. It was Chad. Of course it was, thought Ryan. 'Just my luck,' he muttered under his breath. He smiled at Chad, offering a hand to help him up.

'Sorry about that,' he said in what he hoped was a normal tone of voice. 'I didn't expect to see you here.'

Chad was sweating nervously. 'Oh didn't you?' he asked 'Well i guess not… um...' Chad let out an awkward chuckle. 'Well, I'm actually here with my… sister?'

Ryan wanted to believe this. Any other alternative was just too weird.

'Hey...here she is now,' Chad said, grabbing the arm of a young girl who was walking past them. 'This is, er...my sister.'

Ryan still wanted this to be the truth but it was getting more and more unlikely, for three main reasons:

He had never heard of Chad having a sister before.

This girl did not appear to be the same ethnicity as Chad.

The girl did not seem to have ever seen Chad in her whole life.

His theory was confirmed when the girl screamed and tried to run away.

'Stranger danger! There's a pervert on the loose!' she shouted.

'Well I'll be seeing you then,' said Chad who then turned and walked briskly in the other direction. 'That's just a little joke we have,' he said to Ryan over his shoulder. 'Got to go now, see you later!'

'Second place!' shouted Sharpay. 'This is all your fault Ryan, what the frick were you thinking?!' She had been screaming at Ryan since they had gotten into the car and Ryan was doing his best to block her out.

'Second is good,' Ryan suggested hopefully. 'We don't have to find room for that big trophy now.'

Sharpay snapped round to glare at him, which was unnerving as she was driving. 'Do you think this is a joke?'

'Well...'

'The winners lost their shoes, Ryan! We are worse than a pair who lost their shoes!'

While Ryan hadn't found the situation funny at all before now, he snorted at this which made Sharpay let out an unearthly scream. She spent the rest of the drive silently fuming, but Ryan knew that this wasn't over. Somehow, though, it didn't seem important to him. What _was_ important was finding out why Chad was at the competition.

As soon as he got home, Ryan rushed to his computer. He would figure this out, dammit! He logged on to Facebook and began stalking Chad. Sadly there was absolutely nothing on there about dancing (or his 'sister', surprise surprise) but Ryan had found out what type of movies Chad liked as well as looked at more photos of Chad than he had ever expected to in his life. Most of them had something to do with basketball - there was a Wildcats team picture from last year, a photo of him and what appeared to be his cousins all wearing basketball jerseys and, right at the bottom of his photos, a photo of a maybe twelve-year-old Chad and a man Ryan guessed was his father playing a one-on-one game of basketball. Wow, Ryan thought. He must really love basketball. Ryan sighed. There was nothing about dancing here. Maybe he was wrong, and Chad really was just a brainless jock, like that nasty girl Taylor always said. Just then he heard a bong, and he had a new notification. He checked it and saw that Troy Bolton had invited him to a Halloween party. He had invited Sharpay too, so hopefully they were on speaking terms in three weeks' time. Ryan scrolled down the list of people who were invited. It was pretty much the entire junior class as well as a few others. Chad was going. This would be the perfect opportunity to confront him, Ryan thought. Until then, he just had to find out all the information he could about Chad's possible interest in dance. Ryan sighed. Why was he so obsessed with this?

'Dinner!' He heard his mom call and he jumped. He had been lost in his own little world.

He and Sharpay sat opposite their parents as their housekeeper Juana carefully lowered plates of food onto the table. Sharpay inspected each one.

'What meat is this?' she asked suspiciously.

'Turkey,' Juana said.

'I only eat turkey-'

'Imported from Maine, I know,' Juana said, rolling her eyes at Ryan. Ryan smiled.

'So, how was the competition?' his father asked, taking a sip of his wine. Ryan cringed. This was not the direction that he wanted this conversation to take.

'It was terrible!' Sharpay shouted. 'Ryan dropped me!'

'Ryan!' Their mother put down her fork, obviously shocked. 'How could you be so careless? You're better than that.'

'It was an accident,' Ryan said quietly. 'And I've said sorry.'

'Well that's that then isn't it?' said their father, jovially. 'No need to dwell on it!'

'Well I think it's very concerning,' Sharpay said. 'And I think that if Ryan continues to behave so amateurishly, I will have to find a new partner.'

Ryan smirked. He knew for a fact that nobody else would agree to dance with Sharpay.

'You try that,' he said.

'And what's that supposed to mean?' Sharpay demanded.

'Only that you're so annoying, no one else-'

'Children!' their mother interrupted. 'No fighting at the dinner table!'

Sharpay glared at Ryan, who smiled sweetly and continued eating.

When they had finished, Juana came in to take the plates away. Ryan was the only person still at the table. He looked around the room.

'Ryan, I hope you don't take what your sister says to heart,' Juana said. 'You're a fantastic dancer.'

'Thank you, Juana,' Ryan said. 'I just-' Something caught Ryan's eye. On the mantelpiece there was a photograph. He wasn't sure why, but he walked over and picked it up. The picture was of him and Sharpay in their first dance class, when they were about five. Ryan smiled. She even yelled at him then. He looked along the rows of children in the picture, wondering if he and Sharpay were the only ones still on the dance circuit. Some of them still looked familiar but he couldn't remember any names. It had been years since he'd seen any of them after all. But wait. Didn't that kid look more familiar than the others? He took the photo into the kitchen.

'Hey Juana,' he said. 'Do you remember this kid?'

'Of course! He was your best friend for about a year, until he quit.' She put down the cutlery she was about to load into the dishwasher. 'What was his name? Charles...Charlie? Something like that?'

It couldn't possibly be, right? 'Was it… Chad?' Ryan asked, disbelieving.

'Yes! That's right. See, you do remember.' Juana smiled. 'He was a nice boy. Shame about the parents.'

'Oh, okay. Well I'm just gonna… go upstairs.' Ryan excused himself and escaped to his bedroom. What the hell was this!? He looked down at the picture he was still grasping. No doubt about it, that was Chad Danforth. And he had been Ryan's best friend? Ryan couldn't believe that he had so little memory of this. Then again, it did explain why he felt so happy around him.


	4. Chapter 4

Since the dance competition three days ago, Chad had been doing his best to avoid Ryan and Sharpay at school. He didn't know about Sharpay, but he knew that Ryan had some questions. Luckily, the basketball was very good at suggesting places to hide. One morning, he saw Ryan walking towards him in the hallway. He froze, but he had the basketball, and it knew what to do.

 _Quick_ , it whispered. _In the janitor's closet!_

Chad grabbed the door handle to his left and quickly shut himself inside, stepping in a bucket. 'Thanks,' he said to the basketball.

This situation had led to Chad bringing the basketball into school every day. The team still thought it was lucky, and they used it at every practice. And it was lucky for Chad, although only because it told him what to do. But when he scored a basket and everyone cheered for him, Chad could almost convince himself that it was his talent alone that was making the shots. The basketball had been right. He liked being the best, and it seemed that everyone else liked him better when he was good at basketball, too. People talked to him more in the halls now, and he was often invited to hang out after school with people like Troy Bolton! Troy had even invited him to one of his legendary house parties, and told him that there'd be tons of girls there. Chad wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with that information, but it sounded like it was going to be a fun party.

However, disaster struck in the form of his teammates using his ball to practice at lunchtime. Chad needed to go and buy lunch from the cafeteria but his friends would not give the ball back. He was forced to go without the ball. He sneaked along the school corridors, hoping not to bump into the Evans twins. Suddenly, a distinct smell of hairspray and Chanel No. 5 wafted down the hall. Shit, there was no doubt who this was. Sharpay Evans was coming towards him. Chad panicked as he didn't have the basketball to tell him where to hide, so he darted in the nearest door. This turned out to be an extraordinarily stupid idea, as the nearest door led to the auditorium, where Ryan Evans was rehearsing for the winter musical. Well he couldn't go back out there, so Chad decided to hide at the back of the auditorium. He didn't have to listen for long to learn that Ryan had a beautiful voice. Not that he had expected anything else, but it was different knowing something and actually hearing it. What he was singing sounded pretty stupid (something about bopping?) but Ryan made it sound like poetry. When he had finished, Chad could not stop himself and stood up, clapping. Crap. If the basketball was here, he would not be in this mess. Ryan looked round, smiled.

'Hey,' he said. 'Didn't see you there.'

'Uh, well I just came in to sit down. You're not too bad,' Chad said, starting to blush. 'At singing, I mean.'

'Thanks! So you like this kind of thing?'

 _He knows_ , Chad thought. But he still couldn't say it. 'No, like I said, I just wanted to sit down.'

'Uh huh,' Ryan said. 'So I haven't seen you around school much since the competition, have you been ill?'

'Oh, um...you mean my sister's dance thing? I tried to get out of going to that but you know, sometimes you have to!'

'That wasn't what I asked,' Ryan said.

'Ah yeah, I know. Um, I'm fine. Maybe our schedules just don't match up. I mean, we probably chose pretty different classes, so...'

'Sure, sure.' Ryan leant on the piano, still watching Chad thoughtfully. 'So, um...if you're not ill, I guess you're going to Troy's party?'

This was safer ground for Chad and he perked up a bit.

'Yeah I am,' he said. 'I mean, everyone is, right?'

'Right, yeah,' Ryan said. He picked up the music on top of the piano and slung his bag over his shoulder. 'I guess I'll see you there then.'

Chad panicked slightly, but decided that there'd be enough people at the party that he wouldn't have to talk to Ryan once he was there.

'Yeah,' he said. 'I guess.'

Ryan nodded and left the theatre. Chad sat back down and put his face in his hands. It was so embarrassing that someone knew about his dancing. Well, probably knew. He groaned. Hopefully Ryan wouldn't spread this around the school, or he'd lose his newfound popularity. He wished he could just tell Ryan to keep it quiet, but something happened to his brain when Ryan was around. He obviously had some kind of freaky theatre-kid mind control, because something about the way he looked at him made it a hell of a lot harder for Chad to form coherent sentences. Chad shook his head and stood up. He needed to get a grip. Half of lunchtime was gone and he still had not eaten, and his friends would be wondering where he was. Chad strode over to the doors and yanked them open, startling Troy who was waiting outside.

'Dude, why were you in the theatre with Ryan Evans?' Troy immediately asked.

'Oh...was Ryan in there? I didn't see him.'

'So you were just...doing a little play on your own, or what?'

'Uh, well… I was hiding from a teacher and that was the nearest place to go.'

Troy looked skeptical but let it go. _Thank god he's stupid_ , thought Chad.

'Yeah, it wouldn't make sense for you to be talking to Ryan, he doesn't even do sports.'

'Right, yeah. He probably thinks dance is a sport,' Chad said, laughing.

Chad did not realise what he'd said until about three hours later. _Since when did I not consider dance a sport?_ he thought, and then promptly forgot about it when the bell rang and school was done for the day. He only had to get through 90 minutes of basketball practice, and then he could go home. He arrived at the gym and began to change into his kit. No longer did he keep it crumpled up at the back of his locker, but he folded it neatly and made sure it got washed. It was much nicer to play basketball in clean kit, why did he never do this before? But when he entered the gym, he saw his teammates warming up with a different ball.

'Hey, are we not using my ball today?' he asked worriedly. How was he going to play as well without his ball telling him what to do?

'Nah, we've found a new lucky ball to use!' Troy yelled.

'It saved my life!' shouted Zeke.

Chad tried to think of something that would persuade them to use his ball, but then his thoughts were overtaken by something else, a voice at the back of his mind.

 _You didn't think I'd leave you to do this yourself, did you?_ it said.

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Chad sighed in relief. He should've known he could rely on the basketball. It was the only friend he could really trust.

As usual, Chad played perfectly with the ball's guidance. He thought he was even better today, and realised he must have been improving in following the ball's commands. As he left the gym for the locker room, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Coach Bolton was standing behind him.

'Great game today,' he said.

'Thanks,' said Chad.

'Have you considered a basketball scholarship?'

'Um...' Truthfully, the answer was no. If Coach had suggested this a few weeks ago, he would've been horrified, stuck between not wanting to play more basketball and desperately trying to convince his coach that he did. But now...well, now he was good. Good enough that Coach thought he could get a scholarship. The only person he knew who was sure to get one of those scholarships was Troy Bolton.

'Do you really think I'm good enough?' he asked.

'Do you realise how much you've improved since this semester began? If you keep this up, then by the time you graduate high school you'll be better than most of the pros!'

Chad thought about what a professional basketball career would bring him. Fame, money, his dad's approval, and even more popularity than his newfound skills had already earned him at school. He had to admit, it was tempting. 'I'll think about it,' he promised Coach.

Chad thought about it all the way home, and didn't realise that he had missed dance lessons for the last three days. He probably wouldn't have cared if he did.


	5. Chapter 5

Ryan stood in front of the full-length mirror in his sister's room, trying to figure out whether his devil costume actually needed to involve a tail. He thought that the horns and the red sequinned leotard probably got the impression across well enough, but Juana had made the tail for him, and she thought he should wear it. He thought of all the things she did for him, and reluctantly pinned it to the back of his leotard. It'd be fine as long as he didn't sit down too much. Sharpay was in the bathroom, putting on her make-up. She was dressed as an angel, which Ryan found pretty funny, although she didn't seem to understand why. As usual, she had planned their costumes. Ryan had had no say in what he was wearing right now. He sighed. Sharpay had started getting ready a whole hour before him, and she still wasn't done.

'Come on, we're going to be late,' he complained. She appeared at the bathroom door, glaring at him from under the halo she had somehow fashioned out of her hair..

'Better late than only half ready,' she snapped. 'And besides, it's fashionable to be a bit late.'

It was 8.30 by the time she was finally ready, an hour and a half after the event start time. Ryan was already embarrassed. He hated being late, even for a party. As soon as they got to Troy's house, he jumped out of the car and hurried to the door. He could hear the sounds of the party even from down the street and was eager to be let in. Sharpay rang the doorbell, checking the stability of her hair-lo with her other hand. To their surprise, Gabriella's mother answered the door. She was wearing some kind of nurse's outfit, but Ryan didn't remember her being a nurse. Or that nurses showed off that much skin.

'Um...hi Mrs Montez,' Ryan said, slightly confused as to what she was doing at Troy's house.

'Oh please, call me Julia,' she replied, opening the door wider to let them in.

Sharpay gave Ryan a look that said, 'What's she doing here?' He shrugged in response and followed her inside.

'Sooo, are you here to keep Troy's parents company?' asked Ryan politely, feeling a bit awkward.

'Oh no, they're out of town for the weekend. I'm here as the adult supervision,' Julia said. 'But don't worry, I won't get in the way of your fun,' she winked, 'I even brought you guys some alcohol. I didn't want anyone trying to steal some from their parents.'

'Wow, um...thanks,' Ryan said. He didn't often drink, and had certainly never known of an adult buying alcohol for a minor's party before, so he wasn't sure what to think of this.

'It's no problem, honey. Why don't you guys go on in and I'll pour you both a drink, okay?' Julia walked off in the direction of what was probably the kitchen.

'Gabriella's mom is really cool,' Ryan said, turning to talk to Sharpay. She had already disappeared into the party, leaving a trail of glitter in her wake. He looked around. There were a lot of people here, but he didn't know all of them that well. He and Sharpay had always been too busy with dancing and stuff to make too much of an effort with the other kids at school. He spotted the winners of the dance competition leaning against the kitchen counters. They had somehow managed to lose a shoe each again, but apart from that he thought they looked great. The guy was wearing a gold vest jacket and a hat not dissimilar to one Ryan himself owned. He went over, wondering if someone else he had seen at the dance competition might show up too.

'Nice outfit,' he said to the guy, figuring it was best not to ask about the shoes.

The guy laughed. 'I win,' he said to the girl standing next to him. She scowled and handed over $5. Ryan noticed that she was wearing a blonde wig and a snazzy pink, sparkly dress and was holding a toy dog.

'You...just won a bet?' Ryan guessed.

The girl smiled. 'If Sharpay complimented me, he owed me $5. If you complimented him, I owed him.'

'Wait, are you…' Ryan took a step back and looked at their outfits again. 'You're us! I mean, you're me and Sharpay!'

'Yeah, you got it,' the girl said. 'We're pretty big fans. You guys killed it at that last competition.'

'Are you kidding? I dropped Sharpay,' Ryan reminded them.

The girl shrugged. 'You made a mistake. It happens.' She held out a manicured hand for him to shake. 'I'm Primrose. This is my dance buddy Steven.'

'It's nice to meet you,' Ryan said. 'Sharpay and I thought you were great at the competition, by the way. You really deserved to win.' It was a lie, but if Sharpay didn't hear it, Ryan didn't care. The pair beamed and looked like they had actual stars in their eyes, although that may have been an effect of the glittery contact lenses they were wearing, the same ones Ryan and Sharpay had worn in last year's winning pairs routine.

'Hey, have you had a drink yet?' asked Steven, holding up his own cup as if Ryan wouldn't understand what he meant if he didn't show him.

'Um, not yet, but Mrs Montez said she'd get me one…'

'I'll get you one, don't worry about it.' He turned around, and Ryan tried to see what he was doing with the drinks behind him. Steven turned around and handed him a tall glass filled with pale green liquid.

'Is it...a cocktail?' he asked hopefully.

'Just try it. It's nice,' Steven said.

Ryan took a sip. It tasted like apple juice, except for the slight burning in the back of his throat.

'Not bad,' he said.

'See? Told you,' Steven said. Primrose scowled and gave him another $5. 'Apple juice and vodka,' Steven explained. 'Primrose thought I couldn't get anyone to drink it, but looks like she was wrong again.'

Ryan went to take another sip, but his arm was jolted by someone bumping into him. He turned around to see who was to blame for the spill on his leotard, and there was Chad Danforth, dressed in a huge, completely spherical inflatable basketball costume. Under his arm, he carried the basketball he always had at school. Ryan felt like his head was spinning, and he'd barely drunk anything.

'Oh, shit, sorry...it's you!' exclaimed Chad. 'You! Great...yeah, I just…' He gestured to the drinks on the counter, already seeming a little unsteady on his feet. 'I just came to get another drink.'

'And I'm here to make sure he doesn't break all the glasses!' said a cheerful voice. Gabriella had followed Chad into the kitchen, dressed as some kind of scientist. Ryan hadn't even noticed she was there.

'Gabriella! Hi,' he said.

'You know, I had a feeling you might be a devil,' she said.

'You saw Sharpay?'

'What? No,' Gabriella said, laughing. 'I'm psychic, of course.'

'And you are…'

'I'm Marie Curie,' she said.

'Oh. Right, sure.' Ryan didn't know who Marie Curie was, but he had more pressing issues on his mind. 'Um...is he OK?'

'Chad? He's just a little inebriated,' Gabriella said, frowning as she saw Steven pour Chad another drink. 'He's been here since seven helping to set up. By which I mean drinking.'

'I'm fiiiiine, Gaby,' slurred Chad, belatedly. He took a sip of his new drink. 'So, Ryan, why are you here and not at dancing lessons?'

'What? They're not … on right now?'

'Right, right...I wouldn't know that, obviously. Because I don't dance.'

'Well, duh.' Gabriella laughed. 'Talk about stating the obvious.'

Ryan was strongly considering pursuing this line of conversation further (especially since Chad might be more honest with him now), but before he could, there was a yell from the living room.

'SPIN THE BOTTLE!'

'That's Troy,' Gabriella said, rolling her eyes. 'I guess I should go keep an eye on this.' She left the kitchen, followed by Steven and Primrose. Chad leant against the counter, looking at Ryan.

'What do you say, Evans?' he asked, a smirk on his face.

'Uh…I don't really-'

Before he could properly reply, Chad spun him around and pushed him into the living room.


	6. Chapter 6

Chad was not sure what life choices had brought him here, pushing Ryan Evans into a game of spin the bottle, but at the moment he didn't really care. It was probably the alcohol. There was already a big circle of teenagers sat around on the floor and someone had placed an empty wine bottle in the centre. Gabriella's mom was also sitting in the circle, but since this didn't seem to bother anyone else, Ryan didn't question it. Chad went and sat down next to Zeke, who was dressed as some sort of baked good. Chad had been told what it was earlier but couldn't remember for the life of him what it was. He put the basketball down beside him. Ryan went to sit next to him, but was pushed out of the way by Taylor who, annoyingly, seemed to have copied his devil costume. Slightly annoyed at how much he was being shoved around this evening, he sat down on the opposite side instead, between Kelsi and Gabriella.

'Is everyone here?' asked Troy. The room quietened down. 'Alright, let's go!' He leant forward and spun the empty wine bottle. The atmosphere was a mix of excitement and fear. The bottle landed on Gabriella and Troy sighed in relief. He didn't want to kiss someone who he wasn't dating. Gabriella blushed, and leant over to kiss Troy. Chad realised that this was probably the first time he'd actually seen them kiss - they didn't seem to be big on PDA. As they broke apart, Gabriella's mom stormed out of the room. It was kind of weird but Chad thought that she was probably just overprotective of Gabriella.

'My turn!' Taylor cried as she grabbed the bottle and spun it. Despite his somewhat impaired sense of judgement, Chad felt a little uneasy about this one. He'd seen her looking at him before, and if anyone knew the physics behind getting a bottle to stop spinning exactly where you want it to, it was her. The bottle made a few spins before it ground to a halt. Chad almost cried.

'Nice!' Zeke whispered to him. Chad did not agree, but he nodded. Taylor giggled.

'Well,' she said, 'I guess the bottle wants us to kiss.'

'I guess…'

Taylor grabbed Chad round his neck and smashed their faces together. It hurt. She continued to 'kiss' him and he found himself getting more and more desperate for air.

'OK…' Gabriella said. 'I think that's enough now!' She laughed. 'Either give someone else a go or get a room, am I right?' Everyone laughed. Chad managed to break free from Taylor's hold but it looked like she was seriously considering getting a room. She reluctantly sat back down, and handed the bottle to Chad. He took it, equally reluctantly. He wasn't convinced that anyone actually liked this game and, now he had sobered up a little, the idea was seeming way less appealing. He took another gulp of his drink and spun the bottle. He didn't want to kiss any of these people. Suddenly, there was that voice again. He hadn't expected to hear it here, even with the basketball right beside him.

 _Kissing will distract you from basketball_ , said the basketball. _You don't need to prove anything to these people. You're better than all of them put together._

The bottle was on its third spin by this time, and was beginning to slow down. Chad closed his eyes. He could tell when the bottle stopped as there were gasps and someone screamed. Oh god, who was it that it caused that reaction? He opened his eyes and locked eyes with Ryan Evans, who was staring at the bottle in shock.

 _Forget about it_ , the basketball whispered to Chad. _If you kiss him then you're gay and can't play basketball anymore._ Chad wasn't sure that that was how that worked, but he couldn't deny that he couldn't actually think of any gay basketball players. And if he kissed Ryan, everyone would think he was gay, wouldn't they?

'Well go on then, do it!' someone shouted.

Chad slowly crawled across the circle, hoping that this was a dream. It felt like a dream. Everything was slightly fuzzy around the edges.

 _Don't do it_ , the basketball murmured. _Do you really want to be gay?_

Chad reached Ryan, who still seemed to be in shock. He slowly looked up into Ryan's startlingly blue orbs. Ryan bit his lip. The basketball began to say something, but it was too late now. Chad's lips were on Ryan's, and he couldn't hear it anymore. His lips were soft, and tasted like the cherry Chapstick he always carried around. Chad realised that he didn't dislike it. He began to bring his hand up to place on Ryan's cheek when he remembered where he was. With a start he pulled away and hurriedly scuttled back to his place in the circle, cheeks burning. He tried not to make eye contact with anyone and busied himself with downing the rest of his drink. He hoped no-one else could tell that his hands were shaking. The game continued but Chad felt like everyone was staring at him. Not at Ryan - he was a theatre kid, this was almost expected - but him, definitely. Shit. This couldn't happen. He suddenly decided that he couldn't be in this room for a second longer.

'I'm, er...going to the bathroom,' he announced abruptly, interrupting whatever Zeke was saying. He grabbed his basketball and exited quickly, trying not to trip over people, and locked himself in the bathroom down the hall.

 _I told you not to,_ the basketball said, almost smugly. _What would your friends say if they knew you enjoyed that?_

'I didn't!' Chad insisted.

The basketball laughed. _I'm in your head, remember? I know what's going on here._

'Well make it stop! I don't like guys! I like...' He thought quickly of all the girls he knew. 'Taylor. You saw, I kissed her too.'

 _Yeah, that was really romantic. So convincing. When's the wedding?_

'ARGH!' Chad shook his head violently, trying to get the voice to stop.

'Chad? Are you okay in there?' It was Zeke. Chad tried to pull himself together before unlocking the door.

'I'm fine man, why wouldn't I be? I could use another drink though!' Chad laughed. Zeke didn't look completely convinced but didn't say anything. Chad left the basketball in the bathroom and followed Zeke into the kitchen, where Primrose was pouring out tequila shots.

'You want in on the shots?' she asked them. Chad picked up two and passed one to Zeke.

'Happy Halloween!' Zeke said cheerfully.

'Sure,' Chad replied. 'Happy Halloween.'

Ryan felt like he had been at this party for a very long time. He didn't know what the time was anymore, or how many drinks he'd had. He was outside, and the stars looked brighter than usual, and he was trying to make sense of what he'd felt when Chad kissed him. He was finding it hard to form coherent thoughts, which may have been why he was so easily distracted. Someone had left some baseball stuff out on the lawn. He had never seen Troy play baseball, but it wasn't any surprise to him. Everyone played baseball. Hell, even he'd played baseball once upon a time. And then he remembered. In his drunk, hazy mind he could see it so clearly: himself, aged five, standing on the grass outside his old dance school being taught to hit a baseball by a little kid with huge afro hair and a gap in his front teeth. How could he have forgotten that? Ryan walked over to the kit on the lawn and picked up the bat. How had Chad told him to hold it again? He positioned his hands on the grip and swung it a few times.

'That's not how you hold a bat,' a shaky voice from behind him said. Ryan spun round, and almost fell over.

'Oh, Chad, you're here.' He laughed. 'Shit, it's you. Of course it is.'

Chad frowned. 'Do you not want me to teach you how to hold a bat?'

'You already did.'

'Oh yeah.' Chad smiled. 'I wondered if you remembered that.'

'I do. And I remember how you used to dance as well.'

'I don't dance.' Chad denied, smile slipping from his face.

'I know you can.'

'Well, I know you can play baseball. You gonna let me show you how to hold that or what?'

Ryan sighed. 'OK. OK, fine.'

Chad moved behind him, almost tripping up and grabbing his shoulder for balance. His costume seemed to have deflated quite a lot during the night, and he was much closer than Ryan expected. Ryan noticed that both of his hands were free, that was unusual, he must have lost his basketball.

'Sorry,' Chad said. 'I'm a bit...you know.'

'Sure,' Ryan said.

'Uh, you put your right hand here,' Chad explained, clumsily moving Ryan's hand to the bottom of the bat. His hands closed over Ryan's as he showed him how to grip. They were warm on his, cold from being outside for so long. Ryan wondered briefly if he could pretend he didn't know how to hold a when bat every day, just so Chad didn't have to stop holding his hand.

'Then you pull your arms back like this…'

Did Chad realise how close they were? Was it normal to be this close to someone else, especially someone else you kissed earlier that evening? When he had pulled their arms back to swing the bat, Chad had pulled Ryan closer so that his back was pressed against him. Suddenly, Chad broke away from him.

'So, you er...you think you got it?'

'Yeah,' Ryan said. Suddenly he felt very cold. 'I think so.'

Chad picked up a ball from the grass. 'I'll pitch to you?'

'Go for it. I'll show you how I swing.'

Chad threw the ball and somehow Ryan managed to hit it. He hadn't been expecting much due to the amount of alcohol they had both consumed, but their accuracy surprised him.

'I'm impressed, that would probably get you to second base!' Chad said, picking up the ball from where it had landed on the patio, dangerously close to Troy's mom's potted plants.

'How's your sister?' asked Ryan.

'What sister?' Chad looked confused and Ryan laughed at him.

'The one who competes in dance competitions.'

'...Shit. Just forget about it OK? It won't happen again. I wanna play ball now, and that's all. This is what I do.'

'You used to dance, Chad. I forgot, but I remembered when I saw you at the competition.'

Chad grunted and threw the ball again, Ryan jumped out of the way. Well, fell out of the way. His reflexes weren't the best at the moment. Chad smiled, reached out a hand to help him up. He pulled Ryan towards him, their faces close enough to kiss.

'You're talking a lot, Evans,' Chad said. 'Show me what you've got.'


	7. Chapter 7

Chad was rudely awakened by a loud crashing noise. He immediately swore to hurt the maker of said noise once he registered the pain in his head. He sat up reluctantly and looked around. He was not in his house, but that was okay, he remembered that he was staying the night at Troy's. He couldn't remember how he had got into this particular room though. Actually, he couldn't remember much. Was there a game of Spin the Bottle? Or was it 7 Minutes in Heaven? No, he would've remembered that, he was sure of it. Sighing, he got out of the bed and left the room. He almost tripped over Zeke, who was asleep on the landing. He went into the bathroom and shut the door behind him as quietly as possible, partly for Zeke's sake, and partly for his head's. He splashed his face with cold water, then braced himself for looking in the mirror. What he saw was not what he was expecting. Sure, his face looked as wrecked as he'd thought it would; he had huge bags under his eyes, and someone had drawn glasses on him. But he was also covered in glitter, which had quite clearly come from the red sparkly leotard he was wearing. He was almost definitely sure that he had dressed as a basketball for the party. What the hell was this? He went back into the bedroom and considered his options. His costume was nowhere to be seen, so he couldn't put that back on. Sighing, he decided that he'd just have to wear the leotard and hope that everyone else had got drunk enough to forget that it wasn't his. If he was lucky he could just sneak out without seeing anyone. Of course, with his luck that didn't happen. As he made his way downstairs, he heard talking from the kitchen. He stopped, trying to see into the kitchen through the bannisters. It was Troy and Gabriella, eating cereal at the table as if they'd both had ten hours sleep and were about to go to school. He scowled. Sometimes they were so wholesome it made him feel ill. Maybe if he kept quiet, he could make it out the front door in the hall without disturbing them. Unfortunately, he was not aware of the creaky step at the bottom of the stairs, which let out an enormous groan when he placed his foot on it. Troy came out into the hall and almost did a double-take when he saw Chad.

'Er...morning,' Chad said.

'Hey…' Troy laughed. 'Look who's doing the walk of shame.'

Chad was suddenly seized by anxiety, but he didn't know why. 'What?' he managed to say.

'Oh sure, yeah,' Troy said. 'We had no idea. It's not like Taylor hasn't liked you for like, a whole year, or anything.'

'Taylor likes me?'

'Well yeah! I thought you would've figured that out after last night.' Troy lowered his voice, although Chad wasn't sure why, since Gabriella had almost certainly already heard the rest of their conversation. 'You don't have to pretend, Chad. I know Taylor was wearing that costume last night.'

Chad gaped. There was no way, was there? He didn't even like Taylor! And if she liked him, well, she had a funny way of showing it. But if this wasn't Taylor's costume, whose was it? And how did he end up wearing it?

'I, er...I don't remember much about yesterday,' he said.

'Taylor was really happy about last night,' said Gabriella as she entered the room. 'Do you want me to give you her number?'

'Um...you know, I think I'll do that. More personal, you know?' Chad smiled quickly, hoping that this would be enough for them to let him go.

'When you remember we need to talk about this, tell me details!'

'Troy, no!' Gabriella scolded. 'You...you don't tell him stuff about us, right?'

Chad took advantage of what appeared to be the beginning of an argument and snuck out of the front door. He passed Gabriella's mom, who was curled up asleep on the front lawn, hugging two empty wine bottles and his basketball to her chest. He extracted it from her hold. Chad couldn't wait to get home, where he'd be able to pretend nothing had happened between him and Taylor and he could finally take some aspirin for his head.

Ryan's day usually began with aerobics and a protein shake. Today, however, he woke up with his face pressed against the side of the bath. He opened his eyes slowly, and considered the bathroom ceiling. He had never seen it from this angle before, for obvious reasons. His mouth was dry and his head was spinning. He hauled himself over to the toilet to throw up. His body wasn't used to this kind of treatment, and it was punishing him for it now. He would have probably gone back to sleep on the floor if there hadn't been a persistent knocking at the door.

'Ryan, are you okay in there?' Juana called through the door. Ryan just moaned in response.

'I've got some aspirin for you.'

Ryan shook his head, too tired to get up and not even considering that Juana couldn't see him.

'Come on, I'll make you some breakfast. Something fried.'

'I don't eat-' he began to say, but then he thought better of it. What the hell. If he was going to eat fried food, it was going to be today. He forced himself to stand up and open the door.

'Well good morning,' Juana said.

'What are you making that face for?' asked Ryan. He was too hungover for her games today. He knew he looked bad, but surely nothing justified that kind of look.

'What happened to the costume I made you?'

'I'm wearing it,' Ryan said, rubbing his eyes.

'No you are not!' Juana replied. 'I wouldn't make this trash, what is it even supposed to be?'

Ryan looked down at what he was wearing. Whatever it was was large, squashy and bright orange. Perhaps it was a pumpkin? No, there were lines painted on it.

'I think it's a basketball,' he said. 'I guess it was round at some point.'

'Mind telling me why you're wearing it?' asked Juana, raising an eyebrow.

'I have no idea,' he said.

She shook her head at him. 'Put some proper clothes on and come downstairs,' she said. 'I'll make you some bacon.'

'You got _so_ drunk last night,' said Sharpay as Ryan entered the kitchen. Ryan gave her a withering look. 'Do you even remember what happened?'

No he did not. The last thing he remembered was Troy standing on a table and shouting about how he was going to take off his pants, but his memory was patchy so he could have forgotten about things before that.

'And you remember everything then do you?' he sneered.

'Yes actually,' Sharpay laughed. 'And I'm not going to tell you about it!' She stalked off, snickering.

That sounded bad. Coupled with the different costume he had been wearing, it sounded like there was something he should know… No, it was probably just Sharpay trying to freak him out. Ryan sighed and started to pile bacon on his plate.


	8. Chapter 8

It was Monday lunchtime and Chad had successfully managed to avoid Taylor so far. He was currently eating lunch in the cafeteria with the basketball team, hoping Taylor was at her Scholastic Decathlon meeting but keeping an eye out anyway. The talk of the day had been the party and Chad was fed up of it. He didn't want to remember that he had apparently done something with Taylor.

'...and Zeke was some sort of cake?'

'FOR THE LAST TIME, I WAS A CINNAMON ROLL!'

Chad looked over at the other end of the table, where Zeke was getting increasingly angry about Troy and Jason's inability to recognise baked goods.

'OK, whatever,' Jason said. 'How many have we got now?'

Troy frowned, counting on his fingers. 'I was a firefighter. And Gabriella was Mary Ellen Walton, or someone. And you were a damsel in distress, and Zeke was a cinnamon roll. So that's six.'

'Bro, that makes five though?' Jason said. 'Hey Chad, what were you again?'

'A basketball,' said Chad. He didn't mention that he was still wondering what happened to that costume.

'Hey, I remember what Sharpay was!' Troy said. 'She was an angel! I remember 'cause I said she looked hot and then Gabriella's mom slapped me.'

'Right, yeah!' Jason said. 'And Ryan was a devil!'

Chad laughed. 'No, guys. _Taylor_ was a devil.'

'You'd know wouldn't you, Chad.' Troy winked.

'Right...yeah,' Chad said quickly, hoping they'd move on.

'No, I'm sure Ryan was a devil,' Jason said. 'He had that stupid tail. And a _leotard_. I think I'm scarred for life.'

Wait, if Ryan was a devil… Chad thought he could almost remember something. He definitely talked to Ryan at the party but he couldn't remember what about. Surely he hadn't swapped costumes with him?

His thoughts were derailed by someone jumping on his back.

' _There_ you are! I've been looking for you all day!' It was Taylor. Taylor was on his back. Could this day get any worse?

'Hey cutie,' she said. Chad died a little inside.

'Yo Taylor, were you a devil at Troy's party?' asked Jason.

'Yeah, I was, but I didn't get to hang onto my costume for very long…' She did an exaggerated wink at Chad, who cringed.

The boys all looked at him. 'Oh great,' Chad thought. Troy had clearly told everyone.

'I have Scholastic Decathlon now, but I was wondering if you wanted to hang out later?' said Taylor. Chad could see his friends nudging each other and smirking. Taylor seemed to take Chad's silence as agreement, because she kissed him on the cheek.

'See you later,' she said, and left the cafeteria, turning around to blow kisses at Chad.

Chad looked at his friends. Jason was wiggling his eyebrows and Troy was trying to wink, but kept closing his eyes and sticking out his tongue instead.

'What happened to Taylor's costume?' asked Zeke.

'Dude, we've been over this. Chad's got it.'

'But why? It doesn't make sense, what did she wear instead?'

Jason and Troy started laughing.

'Nothing,' Troy whispered.

'Wasn't she cold!' said Zeke, outraged. 'Chad that's so mean!'

'No, Zeke…' Jason could barely stop laughing long enough to speak. 'She _wanted_ to take her costume off. Chad was, you know, contributing to her Biology project.'

'You were doing homework at the party?'

'No,' Troy said. 'They were just working on a private project on their own. Without clothes.'

'What kind of project-'

'We had sex,' Chad said abruptly. They all stared at him. 'I don't remember it, and I definitely didn't mean for it to happen, so just...just stop talking about it.'

'Woah, you don't need to get so upset about it, it's just sex,' said Jason.

In the stony silence that followed, Zeke whispered, 'What is sex?'

They all looked at him. 'All right,' said Troy. 'If anyone has to tell you, it should probably be me. I do have a girlfriend, after all.'

Chad decided that this was the time to leave. He grabbed his basketball and made his way out of the cafeteria, stopping to stack his tray on the pile by the door. He heard Troy mention something about cheese graters, a pineapple and drawing pins and made a mental note to check that Zeke was not scarred for life later. As he left the cafeteria, he heard the voice again. It had been so quiet since the party that he thought it had gone away. While he was a little concerned about what this would mean for his basketball career, it had been nice to not have it bothering him all the time.

 _So, Taylor, huh?_ it said. _Didn't see that one coming._

'Not you too,' Chad muttered, hoping no-one had noticed that he was talking to himself.

 _Thing is though, I just don't buy it._

'Buy what?'

 _You don't like her, all this is going to do is affect your basketball skills. You know you didn't really sleep with her, right?_

'Well, I must've done!' Chad said loudly. The girls walking in front of him turned around and looked. Chad smiled weakly and turned around.

 _Are you sure about that?_

Chad felt panic rising up inside his chest. He needed to shut this up now. Something about its tone of voice made him very, very uneasy. He scanned the hallway for somewhere he could be alone. He saw the janitor's closet where he'd hid from Ryan after the dance competition, and darted inside, shutting the door firmly behind him. Once again, he put his foot straight into a bucket. He heard a laugh, which almost made him run back outside again.

'You OK there?' It was Ryan. Oh. Chad smiled, relieved. There was something about Ryan's voice that always made him feel like it was going to be OK.

'Yeah...I just, er…'

'Hiding?'

'Sort of,' Chad said. It was very dark in the closet, but he could just make out the shape of Ryan standing next to him, his back against the wall.

'Me too,' said Ryan. 'Sharpay's really got it in for me right now.' He shifted and Chad realised just how close they were standing. He could hear Ryan breathing, was sure he could feel the heat of his breath. Without even thinking about it, he moved a little closer to him. His hand brushed Ryan's momentarily, and he jumped back again. He thought he saw Ryan turn his head to look at him in the dark.

'Uh…' Chad searched for something to say. 'So did you go to the party then?' Why. Why did he bring up that goddamn party?

'Yeah, but I don't really remember it,' said Ryan. 'That's kind of why I'm hiding, actually. Sharpay knows about something I don't, and that's never a good situation to be in with her.'

Chad grunted his sympathy. 'I don't really remember much either,' he confessed.

Ryan laughed. 'I vaguely remember getting there but that's about it. I may have played baseball at some point? Then I woke up in the morning in someone else's costume!'

'Same,' said Chad.

'Wait, what? You switched costumes too?' asked Ryan, incredulously.

Chad opened his mouth to reply and that's when it hit him. Suddenly, he remembered. He was outside, and a baseball game had led to soft words, and then soft lips on his neck. He was in a hallway, leading Ryan by the hand, tiptoeing up the stairs so the others didn't hear them. 'You're talking a lot, Evans. Show me what you've got.' Oh God.

'Oh god,' said Chad. He could feel his face heating up as the events of the party sunk in. 'I have to go,' he said, scrambling for the door.

'Wait!' Ryan reached out to stop him, grabbing his shoulder. Chad turned around. In the soft light creeping in from the hall through the door he had already begun to open, he saw the way Ryan looked at him and knew that he remembered, too. Even if he hadn't been able to see, the gentleness of his fingers on his shoulder would have told him.

Chad brushed off Ryan's hand and escaped through the door. It slammed shut behind him, leaving Ryan alone in the dark.


	9. Chapter 9

Ryan threw himself onto his bed and curled up into a ball. It had been a weird day and he was feeling very confused. Why had Chad run away from him? He tried to remember the look in his eyes at the moment when they'd both remembered. It was shock, definitely, but was it something else too? Ryan had been pretty shocked too but now, well, it kind of made sense. They had both been seriously out of it, and Chad was _gorgeous_. What really confused him was that Chad had been a willing participant. Was it just because he was drunk, or…? Ryan shook his head. When you were drunk you were more honest, right? So it was what Chad wanted? As unlikely as it would have seemed only a few weeks ago, Ryan was starting to believe it now. Chad's kiss with Taylor had been very unconvincing, and ever since he saw him at the dance competition, he had allowed himself to consider the possibility that Chad was more than just a jock. But was he just convincing himself that Chad felt that way because he wanted him too? After all, Chad had run away today. Maybe he was just as confused.

'Argh!' His thoughts were just going round in circles, and it was making him dizzy. But underneath all of that, he couldn't wait to see Chad again. He thought about how close they had been in the janitor's closet, and how alone he had felt when Chad had run away. The rational part of Ryan's brain decided that it didn't matter how Chad felt - if they could just be friends it would be enough for now. He shook his head again. Screw that. There was no going back now he'd remembered. He needed to make a plan.

Ryan realised that he did not actually know that much about Chad. How was he supposed to ask him out when all he knew was that he liked basketball, baseball and probably dancing? Well baseball had worked out at the party hadn't it? He could feel himself blushing. Maybe he should just ask for more lessons.

He sighed and rolled over to face his bookshelf. The last time he had had a crush, he was thirteen, and he'd written all about it in this stupid diary with a padlock on it. He still had it, and only he knew where it was. He went to the bookshelf and took down his favourite book from when he was little, the hardback edition of _The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark_ , the book he thought would be the safest because he knew Sharpay had thought it was boring. He carefully removed the dust jacket, and there was his diary, a battered red exercise book with the words 'FRENCH GRAMMAR' written on it to further deter Sharpay, just in case. He took it back to the bed with him and opened it, blowing dust off the pages.

 _I saw Derrick in Math today. He was wearing sports stuff in class. Usually I would think anyone who did that was just_ hopeless _, but he can totally pull it off. I used to think guys who had his haircut were awful too, but on him it looks gorgeous. I love how his hair falls in his beautiful blue orbs._

Ryan couldn't help laughing. This was _so_ embarrassing. Who would use the word 'orbs'? He flicked over a few pages, hoping to get to something that wouldn't make him want to throw the diary in a fire.

 _Derrick was playing football at lunch today so I went out to support him. I'm sure he noticed I was there because I wore my new suit in the team colours that Juana made for me. He didn't actually talk to me, but that's OK because I know he would probably want to keep his feelings secret from his friends. Some of his friends can be a bit...narrow-minded. His friend Chad is OK. He came to watch the game as well. I couldn't see Derrick for some of it because Chad's hair was blocking my view._

Oh. This was starting to get interesting. Ryan turned a couple more pages.

 _I HATE Derrick._

Ah. So that's how that had ended. Now he was reading it again, he couldn't believe he'd forgotten.

 _I thought he was different to all those other jocks but I guess not! I finally worked up the nerve to ask him if he wanted to come and see my dance show but all his friends started making fun of me and they said that dancing is for girls. I thought that Derrick would stand up for me but no! He joined in and said "what are you gay or something? that's gross" and then they all laughed at me! I HATE him. I HATE them._

 _Well, Chad's OK I guess. After they had left he hung back and apologised and he actually said it was kind of cool that I was good at dancing. That was nice of him I guess but he doesn't have to lie. I know they all think it's weird that I dance. Sometimes I just wish I could like something else. And_ someone _else. That girl Kelsi's nice to me. If I could like her instead, this whole school thing would be way easier._

Ryan put the diary down. Even now, he could remember what he had felt like that day, and it hurt. But Chad was there. In trying to forget the whole horrible incident, he had forgotten how nice he'd been. At the time he'd thought that Chad was lying to make him feel better but looking back, it was possible that Chad actually did think it was cool that Ryan was good at dancing. He probably danced then too, but managed to hide it from his friends.

The more Ryan thought about him, the more amazing he seemed. How had he not noticed before? He had always gone for the Derricks of the world, the popular guys who were the best at sports. In fact, the fact that he didn't have a crush on Troy Bolton could only be a sign of serious character development. If it was someone like Chad, maybe things could work out? Chad was so nice, and he _danced_. He was perfect.

That's it, Ryan thought, I have to ask him out. He probably likes me, right? And even if he doesn't, he won't be a douche about it. That'll give me a chance to win him over! He turned the diary over so it opened to blank, upside-down pages. And even though he knew it was stupid, and it was embarrassing even while he was doing it, he wrote CHAD in big letters and drew a heart around it.

Ryan spent the rest of the day planning his best outfit to wear when he asked out Chad the next day. He eventually decided on a hot pink shirt and dark green skinny jeans, but not before hosting an impromptu fashion show for Juana.

'Trying to impress someone?' she asked, raising her eyebrows.

'Kind of,' he said. 'I think I already did.'

Chad had run straight home. It didn't matter that it was only lunchtime. He could not face anyone right now, especially Ryan. He slammed the door to his room and fell face first onto his bed. Why had this happened to him? If word got out about this, then he would lose all his newfound popularity. Would the team even want to play basketball with him anymore? He was so annoyed with himself that this had happened and he was even more annoyed that all he could think about was the way Ryan kissed him.

'Get out of my head!' he shouted.

 _I told you you'd regret it, Chad,_ said the basketball.

'I do!' Chad said.

He expected the basketball to argue with him on this, but it stayed silent. Chad sighed. He didn't need the basketball to tell him it wasn't true.

Wait, they had kissed during spin the bottle, so had everyone seen?! Oh god this was a nightmare. He would have to do some damage control. Although… in spin the bottle you have to kiss whether you want to or not. So their first kiss was because of that, not because he actually wanted to kiss Ryan! Chad could vaguely tell that the basketball was laughing at him but he ignored it. Yeah, the other stuff he probably only did because he was drunk and had already kissed Ryan so his inhibitions weren't working. Yeah that's definitely what happened, he told himself. Now he was sober, he could just forget about it. He could go out with Taylor, smart, pretty Taylor who had liked him all year, apparently. He fought back the shudder that accompanied that thought and tried to think about how great it would be to date her. He would probably start doing really well in Science tests, since it was pretty much all she talked about. And his friends seemed to approve. Gabriella was her best friend, and she was dating Troy, who he was good friends with now, what with all the basketball. They could go on double dates, wasn't that what high school was meant to be like? He grabbed his phone, but then realised that he didn't have Taylor's number. He went downstairs to see if his parents still had a telephone directory. Sure enough, he found the enormous, very scruffy looking book on the bottom shelf of the bookcase in the study. It was several years old, but it would have to do. He had to get this sorted out now, or it would bother him all night. He flipped through the pages, looking for the M section.

'What are you looking for sweetie?' his mom said suddenly.

Chad looked up, startled. She was standing in the doorway. 'Um...just a phone number,' he said.

'Aw…' his mom said, smiling widely. 'Is my little Chad calling a girl?'

'Well...yeah,' Chad said. His mom gasped and clapped her hands together, before running off, presumably to tell his dad. He sighed. He did not understand parents. But he had been right in thinking that this would make them happy.

Chad continued flicking through the pages until he reached McKessie. There were a few entries, but he wasn't in the mood for detective work. He took the book back upstairs to his room and dialled the first number. He waited while it rang. There was a click.

'McKessie household, this is Brianna,' a voice said.

'Erm...is Taylor there?' Chad asked.

'Sure,' Brianna said, sounding bored. 'TAYLOR!' Chad heard her yell. 'There's a BOY ON THE PHONE!'

Chad heard various shouts and screams on the other end of the phone as he waited for it to change hands.

'Hello,' Taylor said. Her voice sounded different, deeper, like maybe she had a cold. Or was this...Chad almost shuddered again. Was this Taylor being sexy?

'Um, hi. It's Chad, from school,' he said.

Taylor laughed. This sounded different too. She lowered her voice, presumably to keep her family from hearing what she was saying. 'You don't need to tell me who you are, Chad. Trust me, I know all about you.'

Chad felt vaguely threatened by this but valiantly continued. 'I was wondering if you'd, maybe, like to, uh, go on adatewithme?' There. He said it, no backing out now. This would shut that stupid basketball up.

'A date?' Taylor giggled. Chad was glad someone was finding this so funny. 'I didn't know that was your style, Chad. That's not the impression you gave me at the party, anyway.'

Oh god, did Taylor still think that they had… done stuff?

'Haha...yeah,' he said nervously. 'It's um...not like a _date_ date, just a double date...with Troy and Gabriella.'

'Oh.' Taylor sounded disappointed. 'But we get some time alone together after, right?'

'Um…sure,' Chad said weakly. 'Well, I need to go, got to ask Troy if he can make it.'

'But we haven't even set a date for it yet?'

'Right, yeah, we can do that tomorrow at school I guess. Bye.' Chad quickly hung up and groaned. Why had he picked Taylor, of all people?

Less than three minutes later, Chad received a text from Troy, asking what time the double date was. How had word spread that fast?! He sighed, and resigned himself to his fate of dating Taylor.


	10. Chapter 10

The next day, Ryan sauntered into school like he was attending a movie premiere. Sharpay, who always arrived at school like that, didn't seem to notice. Today was the day. He was going to do it, he was going to ask out Chad Danforth. At this point, he was barely even nervous. They'd already kissed twice - how badly could this possibly go, even if Chad had run away that time in the janitor's closet? Ryan was sure that was just from the shock of remembering what happened at the party. After all, it had seemed pretty crazy to him too. But now he'd thought about it, nothing could make more sense. He smiled as he pushed open the doors at the front of East High. Today was the day.

Time seemed to pass impossibly slowly until lunch, although Ryan could not remember a single thing that happened in his lessons. He was too excited about the likelihood of Chad becoming his boyfriend to focus on anything else. When the bell finally rang, Ryan practically sprinted out of his algebra class. He knew that Chad's last class before lunch was right next to the cafeteria, and he wanted to get there before any of Chad's basketball friends did. When he got there, though, it seemed that his luck had run out. Troy Bolton was already sitting across from Chad at the team's usual table, seemingly deep in conversation.

 _It's okay_ , Ryan told himself. He didn't have to ask Chad out in front of Troy, he could ask to speak privately with Chad, somewhere away from all the people in the cafeteria. He took a deep breath, suddenly much more nervous than before, and stepped forward towards them. But when he heard Troy's voice, he had to stop.

'So you'll pick Taylor up at seven, and meet us at the restaurant,' he was saying, a confused look on his face.

' _Yes_ ,' Chad said. 'For the last time...it really isn't that complicated.'

Troy didn't look like he believed that but that was the last thing on Ryan's mind. Why was Chad picking Taylor up to go to a restaurant? That sounded like… a date?

'But if I meet you at the restaurant, how will Gabriella get there?' Troy asked, sounding quite distressed.

'She can come with you!' Chad sighed. 'Look, I'm not explaining this again. I promise you it will work.'

'Hey! What restaurant are you going to?' asked Ryan, butting in on their conversation with a big smile that wasn't completely genuine. His heart was beating so fast that he felt sure they could hear it.

If it was even possible, Troy looked even more confused at this interruption. 'There's more than one restaurant?!' he said, his hands clutching handfuls of his hair in panic. 'How will I find it?'

Ryan ignored him, looking at Chad instead.

'Um...just the pizza place,' Chad said. Ryan was sure he looked uncomfortable.

'Oh, a basketball team thing?' he asked, trying to keep his tone light.

Chad fidgeted a bit before meeting Ryan's eyes for the first time since he'd entered the cafeteria.

'It's a date,' he said, and Ryan's heart plummeted. 'A double date. I'm going with Taylor.'

'Oh,' Ryan said. He couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice. 'I mean...that's great, have fun.'

He turned and walked out of the cafeteria, and continued to walk until he found himself outside the cupboard that he and Chad had occupied only yesterday.

 _It's funny how so much can change in a day_ , he thought, and went inside. He sat down and hugged his knees.

By the time he arrived at Taylor's house, Chad had already convinced himself that this was a great idea. He could totally go out with Taylor. She was smart, and cute, and he'd probably get used to her eventually. What's more, his friends approved, and his parents probably would too. He could do this.

Chad rung the bell and immediately heard yelling from inside the house, at least three voices were involved. Oh god what had he gotten himself into, he couldn't do this, he-

'Why are you here?' asked a girl, as she swung open the door. Chad stared. This wasn't who he was expecting to see. She looked like Taylor, only smaller, with curlier hair and bubblegum snapping in her mouth.

'Uh, does Taylor live here?' Chad asked, suddenly worried that he'd got the wrong house.

'Yeah but she's still in her underwear so you're gonna have to wait.'

'Oh…' Chad looked away, embarrassed. He didn't particularly want to think about Taylor in her underwear.

'You can come in if you want,' the girl said. She smiled, and Chad saw that she had a small piece of gum stuck to her braces. 'I'm Brianna.'

'Thanks, Brianna,' Chad said. 'I'm Chad.'

'And you're going on a date with Taylor?' Brianna asked.

'Well, yeah...I mean, more of a friend thing really, kind of…' Chad paused. Why did he feel the need to explain this to Taylor's little sister? He was going to have to be a bit more convincing.

At that moment, Taylor arrived downstairs. She was wearing a red dress that was way too formal for the pizza place he was taking her to, and Chad saw that she had stitched a small white W just under the neckline. He cringed. A Wildcat dress. She leant against the doorframe, shoving Brianna out the way in order to do so.

'Ow, watch it,' grumbled Brianna, but Taylor ignored her.

'Hey, Chad,' she said, 'you look hot. Ready to go?'

'That's er...that's why I'm here,' Chad replied, laughing weakly. He was probably imagining it, but he could have sworn he saw Brianna roll her eyes at him before she went back inside the house.

'Good.' Taylor smiled and stepped towards him. 'I was worried you were just here to…' She paused, looking behind her. She lowered her voice. '... _trade clothes_.'

Chad started choking and he could feel his face burning. 'No!' he said, a little too fast. 'I mean, maybe later.' He could hear the basketball laughing at him, but he tried to focus his attention back on his date.

Taylor's face lit up. She grabbed his hand and dragged him to his car.

When they arrived at the restaurant, it seemed that Troy had figured out the logistics of getting there, as he was waiting at the table.

'Gabriella's in the bathroom,' he announced as soon as Chad and Taylor arrived.

'Um...hello to you too Troy,' Taylor said.

They sat down and opened the menus.

'So, what are you guys gonna have?' asked Troy 'I'm thinking steak!'

'Troy, this is a pizza parlour.'

'Yeah?'

Chad sighed. Taylor looked confused. Chad guessed that she didn't spend much time around Troy despite being his girlfriend's best friend.

A waiter came over and they ordered. Troy ordered for Gabriella, who was still in the bathroom, and Chad felt sorry for her since he doubted Troy actually ordered what she asked for. A few minutes passed, and Chad attempted to think of something he could talk to Taylor about. He found himself thinking about what he would talk about if Ryan was there. They could talk about dancing, he realised. _He_ could talk about dancing, and he wouldn't have to pretend he didn't know anything about it. He shook his head. No. This was not why he was here. Well, it was, but it shouldn't be. He liked basketball now! And Taylor! Maybe? He was a star basketball player and Taylor was a pretty girl. This made perfect sense.

He was distracted from his thoughts when Gabriella returned to the table. She looked… different. Maybe she was ill? That would explain why she had been in the bathroom so long. Chad was unsure but Troy didn't seem to be worried so it was probably nothing.

'Hi, how are you?' asked Chad, grateful that Gabriella was finally here. He could talk to Gabriella, she was normal. Well as normal as you could be when you were dating Troy Bolton.

'I'm fine, sweetie, but I'm even better now I'm with my Troy again,' she giggled and threw her arms around Troy's neck, starting to kiss him.

'Uh, okay…' Chad turned to Taylor, to see if she thought this was weird as well but as he turned something caught his eye. Or rather, someone.

Was that… Ryan? Chad looked closer. It _was_ Ryan, and it looked like he was on a date with Kelsi! Oh god, this was not happening.

'Are you listening to me?' Chad looked up. Taylor was glaring at him. Chad had no idea what she had just said, but at least she was acting normal again.

'Uh...of course,' he said. 'Um...photosynthesis?'

Taylor narrowed her eyes. 'Right again. Hmmm.'

Gabriella smiled. 'It's so nice to see you kids listening to each other,' she said. 'When I was your age, a boy would ask you to dance at a party but you'd know nothing about him. You wouldn't get to talk to him at all.' She sighed. 'How I envy you guys, your whole lives ahead of you…'

Chad was puzzled by this (Gabriella _was_ their age) but he had more pressing things to think about. Why was Ryan here? Was it just coincidence, or… Ryan did know they were going to be there so had he come here on purpose? But why would he have, that didn't make sense. Chad shook his head, Ryan must have already planned this date and that's why he made that weird face when Chad had told him they would be at the pizza place too. Ryan was probably worried about them crashing it. And Ryan...liked Kelsi, Chad thought. Obviously. The theatre star and the composer. It made sense...didn't it?

He felt Taylor rest her hand on his leg and jumped. She gave him a questioning look.

'Ah, sorry, I just, uh, need to use the bathroom,' he said quickly, before escaping Taylor's hold and almost running to the bathrooms.


	11. Chapter 11

He had to go. Ryan Evans did not give up that easily. He called up Kelsi, asked if she wanted to get pizza with him after school. And then he tried to promise himself that if he got there and saw that Chad really, convincingly did like Taylor, he would leave.

So that's how he came to be sitting opposite Kelsi, tapping his feet nervously under the table and trying to get a better look at Chad while she told him way too much information about Zeke, her new crush. What he really wanted to see was Chad's eyes. Every so often, he thought he remembered what they'd looked like when they played baseball on Halloween (or, more accurately, when they'd stopped playing baseball). If Chad looked at Taylor like that, like he'd never seen anything more wonderful in his life, then Ryan might believe that this was for real.

'Ryan!' called Kelsi, bringing his attention back to her. She smiled. 'We didn't just come here for pizza, did we?' she asked, knowingly.

'Well…'

Kelsi laughed. 'Tell me why we're really here,' she said. But she knew. Ryan knew she knew, she just wanted to make him say it.

'We might be here to… spy on a double date?'

'Whose double date, Ryan?' Kelsi pressed.

'Oh, you know…' Ryan said. 'Just some kid from the basketball team.'

Kelsi smiled. 'Someone you kissed in Spin the Bottle?'

'Maybe.'

'I KNEW IT!' she yelled, looking like she was about to collapse, or maybe run around waving her arms?

'OK, OK,' Ryan whispered, a little taken aback. 'Calm down. We're spies, remember? Got to be quiet.'

'How can I be quiet when this is happening? Oh my god it's happening!' she gushed. 'You guys are _perfect._ Perfect.' She looked like she might cry. Ryan was beginning to regret bringing her here. He turned his attention back to Chad, who was looking blankly at Taylor while she talked. Ryan couldn't see his eyes that well from where he was sitting, but he was prepared to bet that Chad was bored as hell.

Kelsi suddenly gasped. 'You disappeared towards the end of the party, were you with him?'

Ryan went red.

'What happened? I need details!'

'No...you don't,' Ryan said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ryan saw Chad get up and leave his table. He was going to the bathroom, this would be a perfect opportunity to confront him and to get away from Kelsi's questioning!

'I, er...I have to go to the bathroom,' he said, getting up and following Chad.

He slowly pushed open the door and was greeted by the sight of Chad pacing, his hands in his hair, and muttering to himself. He couldn't catch most of what Chad was saying until he suddenly raised his voice.

'I don't! I don't like-' Chad cut himself off when he turned around and saw Ryan. His jaw dropped and eyes widened. He turned away, leaning against a sink. Both of them were silent for a few moments. Ryan regretted following him in here. What was he thinking? This was a terrible invasion of privacy, completely inappropriate-

'You knew I would be here,' Chad said suddenly, still facing the wall.

'Yes. But I don't understand _why_ you're here,' Ryan said.

'Isn't it obvious? I'm on a date,' Chad snapped, spitting the word date out like it was poison.

'Doesn't sound like you want to be,' murmured Ryan.

Chad turned around then, and advanced towards him. 'How would _you_ know what I want?'

'Well it's not like _you_ know what you want, is it?' Ryan shot back, finally snapping. Why was Chad being like this? 'You seemed to know what you wanted at that party but then you just went and changed your mind the very next day!'

'I never wanted that, it was a mistake!' Chad shouted. 'I'm not gay!'

Ryan gasped and felt tears prickling behind his eyes. He took a deep breath, tried to calm down. ' _You_ kissed me, Chad,' he said. 'That was you. You started this whole thing. And maybe it didn't mean anything to you but…' He took another breath. 'I thought someone had finally chosen me.'

Chad stared at him. Ryan, feeling brave, held his gaze despite the tear running down his cheek. He had a clear view of Chad's eyes now, and hey, there was that look again, the one he'd thought he'd understood. He must have been wrong about it, he'd been wrong about how Chad felt after all. But if that was true, then why was Chad so angry?

'I'm not gay,' Chad whispered, almost to himself.

'Yeah, you said that already, why is that what you're stuck on? Don't you care that you broke my heart?' Ryan asked. 'Oh wait, of course you don't, you don't care about me, nobody does. I'm just the weird gay kid, keep away from him!' Ryan laughed self-deprecatingly and wiped away a few tears.

'That's not true, how can you say that!' Chad shouted.

'What, like you've given me reason to believe otherwise?'

Chad was visibly furious, his fists clenched and his breathing heavy. 'I didn't want this,' he said. 'I didn't want any of this, but I want you and that's the worst part!' Chad buried his hands into his hair again. 'How did this happen? How did you get into my heart? I don't want this!' he shouted, and surged forward, grabbing Ryan round the waist and kissing him. Ryan was too shocked to move for a moment but he was soon pulled into the passionate kiss, their mouths moving perfectly together, as if they did this all the time. Ryan wound his hands into Chad's hair, pulling him even closer as their tongues battled for dominance.

As suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. Chad pushed him away.

'I can't do this right now,' he said. 'I'm not ready.' Chad turned away from Ryan once more. 'Leave me alone… please,' he begged.

Ryan had pushed him enough for one day, it was obvious he was in far greater turmoil over this than Ryan was, even though Ryan was now unsure where this left them.

'I'll go, but we need to talk about this again, when you're calmer,' he said, and left the bathroom.

'FUCK,' shouted Chad, and punched a mirror. He stood back, surrounded by shards of glass, a searing pain across the knuckles of his right hand. He tried to flex his fingers and discovered a sharp corner wedged into the skin between his middle and ring fingers. Well shit. He kicked open the door to a toilet stall and grabbed some paper to stop the bleeding. He was probably going to have to go to the ER for this. They won't let him play basketball for weeks! How could he have been so _stupid!_

 _I told you no good would come of this 'thing' with that boy_ chided the basketball. _And now look what you've done, idiot. This could ruin your basketball career! What have you_ done?


	12. Chapter 12

Chad sat on the bleachers, bouncing his leg. He wanted to be on the court with his team, practicing for the big game but no, he just had to go and punch a mirror and get himself two weeks off of practice. Dammit, he was still so annoyed at himself, he would never get a basketball scholarship if he couldn't play!

His eyes focused on the practice game his team was playing. He watched the basketball fly between players. He clenched his uninjured hand, he wanted to be touching the basketball too. It wasn't his basketball though. He had had to stop bringing that into school since the temptation to shoot some hoops at lunch was too much and he almost tore open his stitched up hand. He had to admit though, he did feel kind of peaceful without it. He felt useless because he couldn't play, but the cut-up hand meant that no-one expected him to, the basketball included now that he had started leaving it at home. Plus he had told everyone that he'd hurt his hand in a knife fight, which he thought could only improve his reputation at this point.

He wondered if Ryan had heard about this, was he worried? No! Chad didn't care about that, he was just surprised that Troy believed the knife fight story, since he had practically been there. Then again, it was Troy.

Being friends with Troy had some upsides, though. A couple of days into his basketball ban, Troy had announced that his parents were going out of town for the weekend again in three weeks. Kelsi asked if he was having a Christmas party.

'I guess I could…' Troy said. 'When is Christmas?'

The others ignored him and started planning. Chad was glad for the distraction, but the idea of another Bolton house party made him feel a little uneasy. The last one had resulted in a lot of problems, most recently a large piece of glass in his hand. Ryan would almost certainly be there, and he'd been trying his best to avoid him. Maybe he could ask Troy to not invite Ryan? Or was that too mean, he'd be the only one in the year who was uninvited, and after their little talk in the bathroom the other day Chad felt as if he'd been mean enough. In fact, since that day in the restaurant bathroom, Chad was starting to feel a little uneasy about the whole thing.

His friends continued to plan the party, completely unaware of his troubles. Chad barely heard anything they were saying. Why did they even need a party anyway, by then he'd be able to play basketball again and he didn't want to waste his time at a party when he could be catching up on the two weeks he was going to miss. Anyway, Ryan would be at the party, and he needed to get him out of his head. That settled it then, Chad would go to the party for half an hour then leave. As long as he showed his face, no one would really care how long he was there for. From now on, he just needed to concentrate on basketball. He would watch every practice he could until his hand was better, and then he would be back on the court. He would listen to the basketball, impress the talent scouts and get that scholarship. Nothing else mattered.

Thing was though, he was starting to feel like maybe there were other things that mattered. The more time he spent away from the basketball, the more he seemed to notice everything around him. He listened when his friends spoke, realised that he hadn't been paying them much attention recently and that he'd missed them. He joined in on the party planning, and started to actually look forward to it a little bit. And one day about ten days after he'd hurt his hand, he heard a song he remembered from years ago and his feet started moving without him even thinking about it. He stopped as soon as his brain caught up, but he was thinking about it now. And when he thought about dancing, he thought about Ryan, too. How could he not? Ryan was an amazing dancer, had always inspired Chad to be better when they used to dance together. And more than that, Ryan had been his first best friend, and Chad had treated him like shit.

He knew that now. Had known it at the time but for some reason couldn't stop himself. He needed to apologise but Ryan seemed to be avoiding him. Well, Chad was kind of avoiding Ryan too. Maybe it was better this way; they had different friends, there was no need for them to interact again.

The day before the party, Taylor approached Chad in the cafeteria at lunch.

'Hey, you,' she said, poking Chad in the chest.

'Ow,' said Chad.

'You're going to the party at Troy's right?'

'Of course, who isn't?' While Chad had been skeptical at first, now he actually found himself looking forward to Troy's Christmas party.

'Well,' she said, looking up at him from under her long eyelashes, 'I was thinking about going, but I'd really rather not go alone.'

'You won't be alone, there's tons of people going. Probably half the school!'

Taylor frowned slightly. 'But you'll go with me, right?'

'Well Troy wants me there early to help set up so I can't take you there.'

'No, I mean-'

'Hey you guys! Are you gonna swap clothes at the party again?' yelled Jason as he and Troy sat down at the basketball team's table. Chad hid his face in his hands. He didn't want to think about that. Taylor smiled.

'Who knows?' she said.

Troy and Jason started giggling. Great, they were going to be insufferable for the rest of the day now.


	13. Chapter 13

Ryan Evans was not exactly in the party spirit. Sharpay (dressed as a bauble) had dragged him out, telling him that if he missed a Bolton house party she'd tell everyone he'd become a recluse. Upon entering the house, he had immediately poured himself a drink and then skulked off into a quiet corner. Anyone who actually recognised him would have been shocked to see that he was wearing a plain black hoodie and jeans. He didn't really feel up to wearing the star costume that Sharpay had wanted him to. For the first time in his life, he did not feel like a star. He looked at his watch, wondering how early he could persuade Sharpay to leave. It was only eight-thirty. He sighed, there was no way she would leave before twelve. He would just have to avoid Chad for a few more hours.

Speaking of Chad, on his way to the corner, Ryan had caught a glimpse of Chad with Taylor. They looked like they were having fun, which put Ryan in an even worse mood and had prompted the drinking. Over in the kitchen doorway, someone had hung some mistletoe. Ryan saw Taylor kiss Chad while he was trying to talk to someone. He almost choked, which Ryan couldn't help laugh at a little bit. It still made him angry, though. It should be Ryan that Chad was kissing, and there he was with Taylor's lipstick smeared all over his face. He didn't understand how Chad could pretend like this. Ryan went to take another sip of his drink, only to find that it was all gone.

'Heey, can we get you another?' someone asked.

Ryan looked up and saw Primrose, a bottle of tequila in her hand. Behind her was Steven. Both were missing a shoe as usual. They peered at him, confused.

'Ryan?' Primrose said. 'What _happened_?'

'Uh...'

'Sounds like you _do_ need another,' said Steven, and he began to pour something into Ryan's empty cup. 'Now drink up and tell us what's wrong.'

'What do you mean? I'm fine,' said Ryan, slightly unconvincingly.

'Well you look gross,' said Primrose. 'So _something_ must be up.'

Ryan fidgeted a bit before deciding he might as well tell them, he'd had a glass and a half of alcohol at this point and it was enough to make him want to open up.

'Say, hypothetically, that I... _liked_ someone,' He started. Steven and Primrose's eyes widened and they high fived.

'Now _this_ is the kind of shit I want to hear!' Primrose said, excited. Ryan made a face but continued.

'And maybe say that they had kissed me more than once-'

'AHHHHHH!'

'Shhh!' warned Ryan, looking around, but no one had noticed the yelling over the noise of the party.

'But they continue to date someone else, what would you do?' Ryan finished, pleased that he hadn't given too much away.

'Fucking MEN!' screeched Primrose.

'I never said it was a guy!' said Ryan. The others looked unimpressed.

'It's Chad, right?' asked Steven.

'What? How did you-' Ryan paused. 'I mean, why would you think that?'

'On Halloween, you spent half an hour talking to me about his butt…'

Damn, Halloween had come back to haunt him yet again. Ryan flushed, he couldn't remember that, oh god had he talked to anyone else about this?

'Look,' Primrose said, helpfully pouring more tequila into all of their drinks. 'Quite honestly, I don't know anything about him, other than a lot more about his butt than I ever wanted to. But you should probably smush your face on his face. You know, if you want him to know that you like him.'

Ryan laughed. 'He knows I like him. And I know he likes me. He's just...I don't know, he acts like he's ashamed of me. Or ashamed of himself? I don't know.'

The other two nodded wisely.

'I knew his relationship with Taylor seemed fishy. It always seemed like he disliked her, before Halloween,' Steven said.

'I think he _does_ dislike her, but he'd still prefer to be with her than me…' said Ryan, his shoulders slumping.

'It's so weird, I used to get on with him quite well, before this school year started,' said Steven, 'I never would have thought he'd treat someone like this. He really changed over the summer.'

'Maybe you should just give up on him? You shouldn't be with someone who's ashamed of you,' advised Primrose.

'You're probably right,' Ryan said. 'I mean, I deserve better than this, right?'

Steven and Primrose nodded enthusiastically and raised their glasses.

'Being single is great! Who the fuck needs men!' yelled Primrose, and downed her drink. The boys laughed and downed theirs too.

'I'm just gonna have fun tonight,' Ryan said.

Steven and Primrose looked at him doubtfully.

'No, I am!' Ryan said. 'I'm gonna hang out with you guys and just pretend Chad isn't here.'

Several drinks later, everything that had happened over the past few weeks was suddenly very funny.

'He _punched a mirror_ ,' Ryan spluttered, clutching Primrose's shoulder as if he was about to fall over. 'That's how he got that stupid bandage on his hand. And he's telling everyone he got in a knife fight!'

This was the final blow and the three of them collapsed onto the floor, barely able to breathe. Troy appeared in the doorway, seeming completely unsurprised to see them on the floor.

'Taylor wants to play some game,' he said. 'Six minutes in the cupboard, or something? She said something about a cupboard.'

Primrose looked at Ryan. 'We don't have to. We can stay here.'

He sat up, shaking his head. 'If he's here with her, then I have to get over it,' he said.

'What?' asked Troy. He was ignored.

'Come on then,' said Primrose, standing up. 'Maybe you'll find some other guy to kiss.'

She waggled her eyebrows and held out a hand to help Ryan up. He laughed as she pulled him to his feet.

They made their way to the living room but left Steven since he had passed out while on the floor and was now lying in a puddle of his drool. The living room was packed. Apparently a lot of people wanted to play seven minutes in heaven. _Thirsty bastards_ thought Ryan, forgetting for a moment that he was also going to play.

'Does everyone know the rules?' Gabriella yelled over the crowd. Ryan could see Troy shake his head but everyone else knew how to play.

'Everyone will have a go to spin the bottle and whoever it lands on you get in the closet with!'

The crowd quickly arranged themselves into a misshapen circle. Kelsi sat down next to Ryan, pulling Zeke with her. Opposite them were Troy, Gabriella, Gabriella's mom, Chad and Taylor. Chad was concentrating very hard on the carpet. He glanced up briefly and Ryan, forgetting that he was mad at him, smiled, then quickly tried to redirect it at Kelsi. When he looked away, he could still feel Chad's eyes on him.

'Who wants to start?' asked Gabriella, holding out a bottle.

'ME!' yelled about eight people and a fight nearly started.

Gabriella looked around at everyone before handing the bottle to Ryan. 'You look like you need to have some fun,' she said.

Ryan took the bottle and placed it on the floor in the middle of the circle. He wasn't even sure who he was hoping to get. Why was he playing this game again? He looked up at Chad. Oh no, what if the bottle picked him? That would literally be the worst case scenario right now, Ryan did not want to argue in front of all his classmates. Or worse, cry. He took a deep breath and spun. The room fell silent, everyone watching the bottle. It began to turn slower, and Ryan leaned forward. Then it slowed to a halt almost in front of him. It was the person next to him. Kelsi. Thank God, it was Kelsi. There was cheering and wolf whistles from most of the crowd as they made their way to the closet, who for some reason thought there would actually be kissing and stuff going on. Ryan opened the door for Kelsi, prompting more wolf whistles, then closed it behind them. It was very dark in the closet, and almost all of the space was taken up by coats hung from a rail on the extremely low ceiling.

'Did you see Zeke's face?' asked Kelsi. From the direction of her voice, Ryan could tell she was sitting on the floor. He carefully sat next to her, pushing coats out of the way. 'Do you think he looked upset? He looked weird. Do you think he's jealous of you? Do you think I have a chance?!'

'I didn't actually see his reaction…' _because I was too busy looking for Chad's_ , Ryan thought _._ He sighed.

'I read a magazine that said I should try and make him a little jealous,' Kelsi said. 'But, like, I don't want to overdo it.'

'Yeah, sure,' Ryan said. He couldn't honestly say that he was paying much attention.

'You know, I think that worked for you too.'

'Huh?'

' _Chad_ definitely looked upset,' Kelsi waggled her eyebrows.

'Kels…' Ryan paused, wondering how to explain. 'I'm trying not to think about him. You know, because he's here with Taylor. His girlfriend. So yeah. Officially, I'm way over it.'

'That's not what you thought a few weeks ago when we spied on their date?' said Kelsi. Ryan didn't blame her for being confused since he hadn't really told her anything.

'There was a kind of...confrontation. I think it's just better for everyone if we go our own ways.'

'Look, I didn't want to meddle-' began Kelsi. Ryan snorted. 'Like meddle-meddle because I thought you two would be better off working it out on your own but obviously that isn't gonna happen, so...'

Ryan could practically hear the eye roll.

'You know, I think Chad wants to talk to you. He seems really upset. Also I'm not convinced he's actually dating Taylor. He just seems so awkward with her, like he'd rather be anywhere else.'

'Yeah, I've never been very convinced by that either,' Ryan admitted. 'But he would rather go out with someone he doesn't like than admit he likes me. It sucks.'

'Ryan, he's probably just scared. He's on the basketball team, you know what they're like. Talk to him.'

'But he's ashamed of me. He's _ashamed_ of me, Kels, like I'm some kind of terrible secret.'

Ryan felt Kelsi's hand on his shoulder. 'You're telling me you weren't ever afraid to tell someone you like them?'

'It's not the same, Kels.'

'Well, OK,' Kelsi said. 'Then I guess you don't want to know that he's been asking about you all night?'

Ryan scoffed. 'He came with _Taylor_. He wants to be with her tonight.'

'You sure about that?'

'What do you mean?'

'Well…' Kelsi paused. 'All I'm saying is I'm pretty certain there are two separate cars on the driveway. Taylor's and Chad's.'

Before Ryan could process this information, the door was thrown open and light flooded in, temporarily blinding them. There was some cheering and yelling but mostly people looked disappointed that they didn't catch Ryan and Kelsi in a compromising position. Gabriella looked particularly appalled.

'What were you _doing_ in there, talking about the weather?'

Kelsi smiled. 'We were talking about cars.'

'Theatre kids are so weird,' said Jason.

The group arranged themselves in a circle once again, ready for the next turn. Primrose squeezed in between Ryan and Kelsi to offer Ryan some more tequila, which he took. Several more 'couples' entered the closet. Jason and Sharpay, then Zeke and Taylor, then (predictably) Troy and Gabriella.

Ryan had stopped paying attention a while ago and was talking to Kelsi and Primrose for most of the game. He didn't really want to listen to other people kissing. Kelsi was describing the plot of her new musical, but she was suddenly drowned out by raucous laughter and a few screams. Ryan looked over to see what was happening and saw that the bottle had landed on him! Oh god no, he thought. Who had even spun it?

'I can't believe you got a dude! Bad luck man.'

Troy looked like he might explode with laughter. 'Chad got a _guy_! He has to go in the closet with a guy!'

No no no no please no, thought Ryan.

'What, no! Can't I re-spin?! This isn't fair!' shouted Chad.

Gabriella shook her head. 'The bottle has decided, Chad.' Troy was still laughing uproariously.

Kelsi dragged Ryan to his feet and shoved him toward the closet. This wasn't happening, right? There's no way that Chad made that spin…

Oh God it was happening, he was being forced into a closet with Chad in front of his entire grade, what had he done to deserve this?

'Kelsi stop, let me go, I'm not doing this!' he whispered.

'Yes you are, it may not be ideal but you are going to talk to him and sort things out!'

Ryan was about to protest, but they were right in front of the closet now and Chad was suddenly very close to him. Troy gave him a shove from behind so he collided with Ryan, and Ryan put his hands on his shoulders to steady him. Chad stepped away quickly. He had looked angry before, but now the others were yelling and making kissing noises and he was looking at Ryan like he thought he might rescue him. Ryan sighed, then nodded and gestured to Chad to follow him into the closet.

With the door shut, the noise of the party was muted. It was so quiet, Ryan thought he could hear Chad breathing.

'So...I'm pretty mad at you,' he said. He couldn't believe he was just saying it like that, but it probably had something to do with the tequila. Chad said nothing. Ryan carried on.

'You kissed me,' he said. 'More than once, actually. And I really like you, and I don't even know why because you treat me like crap.'

Chad said nothing.

'Are you still ignoring it? Grow up Chad, it happened and you can't change that. Can't we at least talk about it instead of tiptoeing around it and making everything worse?'

'But I-'

'No, you know what, I don't even want to hear it anymore,' said Ryan, getting angry. 'I've tried to talk to you and work things out and you just didn't want to know. You really hurt me, you know that? I thought you wanted to be with me but then you just avoid me and date someone else. Couldn't you have just told me that you didn't want me instead of stringing me along? I'm fucking exhausted-'

'Ryan-'

'Even after our fight at the pizza place I thought we could work it out. You seemed confused but it still sounded like you liked me, I thought we agreed to talk about it but I've barely even seen you for a month.'

'I needed space to-'

'Ugh, why do I always do this?' Ryan asked himself, ignoring Chad's attempts at explaining himself. It was probably the alcohol but he really didn't care anymore, he was done with boys. 'Why do I always fall for assholes who aren't worth my time? You're a heartbreaker Chad. Not just mine, your wishy-washy attitude is gonna upset so many people. Taylor's gonna be pretty upset when she finds out you kissed me during your double date!'

'Is that a threat?' snapped Chad, finally making himself heard.

'Do you want it to be? I could tell her right now, tell everyone about it and your basketball friends would see what a dick you are, you'd lose all your newfound popularity. Maybe that would be good for you, you never seemed like such a jerk before this semester started.'

'Do what you fucking want, I don't even care anymore! I'm not even dating Taylor anymore, I never even liked her! I was just so confused, and the basketball- ugh!'

Ryan was taken aback at this confession and stunned into silence.

'Everything's just been so fucking weird lately and I barely know who I am anymore! Can't you just give me a break?!'

'Time up!' someone yelled as they pulled open the door. Chad ran out and pushed his way through the crowd, disappearing from Ryan's sight. He was still startled by Chad's outburst and did not want to deal with the questioning looks on his classmates' faces.

As people began shouting after Chad, Kelsi grabbed Ryan's wrist and pulled him out of the room.

'What the hell happened? I thought you guys were gonna make up?' she asked once they were alone.

Ryan sighed. It's not like he had planned on going off on Chad and to be honest he kind of regretted it already. Why did they always end up shouting?

'I think you need to hear him out,' Kelsi said once Ryan had filled her in on the conversation in the cupboard. 'He sounds really messed up about something.'

'And I'm not?'

'Just go and talk to him Ryan, and no shouting this time!'

'I don't even think that's possible…'

'Why are you still here? Go!'

Kelsi shoved Ryan toward the nearest doorway. He stumbled a bit and sent Kelsi a weak glare over his shoulder. She just laughed and shooed him away. Ryan figured it was probably a good idea to do what she said, Kelsi was actually really scary when she was angry.

Ryan wandered through the crowds of people in the house, looking for Chad. A few minutes later he'd had his feet trodden on three times and someone had spilled a drink on his shoulder, but he was no closer to figuring out where Chad had gone. Oh no, he thought, what if he'd gone home? But then he looked up and through the huge French windows in the hall, and he saw the coloured lights strung up around the treehouse. Of course he would've gone outside. Ryan remembered the last party here, when it had been Chad following him outside. Just for a moment, Ryan allowed himself to think that Chad had gone into the garden for that reason, so that Ryan would know where to find him.

It was cold outside, it was December after all. Ryan wished he'd put on a jacket but he was out here now.

There was someone in the treehouse, lit up by the fairy lights. Ryan made his way over to the base of the tree.

'Chad?' He called up, hopefully. Probably-Chad shifted but didn't respond.

'Look Chad, I'm really sorry I shouted-'

'No, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Ryan. I've been such a dick,' said Chad. ' I just haven't been myself lately and I know that's not an excuse for how I treated you but...' He sighed and stopped talking.

'I'm coming up there now!'

'No, you really don't have to...just go enjoy the party.'

Ryan ignored him and began grappling with the rope ladder. It was harder than it looked to climb one but he managed it eventually. He pulled himself into the tree house and sat next to Chad. There wasn't really room to sit anywhere else; it had definitely been built when Troy was still a kid. Even with both of them sitting right up against the doorframe, their knees still touched.

'I… have kind of been under a bad influence lately,' said Chad, not looking at Ryan. 'In the summer, I got a new, uh, friend, and being with him really changed me as a person. He made me into someone I really hated.'

Oh, thought Ryan. He hadn't thought that Chad would have dated a guy before.

'But I think now I am getting better?' Chad continued. 'I mean, I haven't wanted to play basketball for like, two weeks.'

What did that have to do with anything? thought Ryan, but he nodded anyway. He was glad that Chad was opening up to him, even if he didn't really understand what Chad was talking about.

'I mean, I could've played. My doctor actually said it was OK two weeks ago. I just...I don't know. I realised it wasn't really me who wanted to do that, you know?'

'I think so,' Ryan said.

'You were right, by the way. About the dancing. Me dancing, I mean. It's just always been a secret since my parents didn't approve of it so when you saw me at that competition I just didn't know what to do.'

'You must be pretty good. To be at the competition, I mean.'

Chad smiled a little. 'I'm _really_ good.'

'And so modest,' said Ryan. Chad laughed. It was good to hear it, although seeing his breath in the air just reminded Ryan of how cold he was. He shivered and crossed his arms, really regretting not putting his jacket on before he left the house.

'Hey...you want my jacket?'

Ryan turned in surprise and saw Chad looking at him in concern.

'You were shivering…' he said, embarrassed. 'I mean, you don't have to, I just…'

'No, I mean, yes, please. It's really cold out here.'

Ryan couldn't help laughing as Chad struggled to get out of his letterman jacket in the tiny space he had in the treehouse doorway, elbowing the doorframe several times. But when Chad handed him the jacket it was warm, and soft on the inside. It was also about three sizes too big for Ryan.

'Guess I wouldn't have made a basketball player,' Ryan said, pulling the extra material around himself.

'You're pretty good at baseball though.'

Ryan raised his eyebrows. 'You're not so bad yourself.'

Chad smiled. He had a really nice smile. Ryan was glad he was smiling again. Wait, he was probably staring at Chad's mouth now. That was weird. He looked up and met Chad's eyes. Had Chad been staring at Ryan too?

'Ryan, I...' Chad took a breath. 'I really do like you,' he said.

Ryan gasped, hope blooming in his heart. This was happening, they could work things out this time.

'Um, I know that it's probably too late and I don't deserve you but I wanted to get everything out there. I'm… me again. I won't mess up anymore, I promise. I just needed you to know.' Chad said, getting progressively quieter as he went.

Ryan grabbed Chad's shirt and pulled him into a kiss. It wasn't the kiss he'd imagined. Their teeth bumped and their noses got in the way. It was probably the best kiss Ryan had ever had.

They broke apart, smiling.

'I like you too, if you hadn't guessed,' said Ryan.

Chad brought his hand up to cup Ryan's face and brought their lips together again, softer this time, unhurried. It was just them out here, and they had all the time in the world.

'Oh hey look it's snowing!' someone shouted. Chad and Ryan broke apart just as people started pouring out of the back door and into the garden. OK, maybe they didn't have that much time.


	14. Chapter 14

Chad woke up, mildly confused about his surroundings, as was usual for him after one of Troy's parties. Unlike usual, he appeared to be spooning Ryan. A smile broke across his face as he recalled the events of last night and he took a moment to watch his new boyfriend sleep, Chad's jacket wrapped around him like a blanket. Both of them seemed to have abandoned the actual blanket, which lay in a heap on the floor with several cushions. Chad guessed that this was one of the many guest bedrooms at Troy's house. He tried to sit up but his arm was trapped under Ryan. He gently tried to roll Ryan away without pushing him off the bed or disturbing him but the movement had been enough to wake him.

'Chad?' Ryan asked, his voice rough with sleep.

'Morning,' said Chad. He leaned over to place a kiss on Ryan's cheek. 'Sleep well?'

'Really, really well,' replied Ryan, grinning. His eyes were still closed, and he yawned and pulled Chad closer to him.

'We should probably get up,' Chad said into Ryan's exposed shoulder.

'Mmmm,' Ryan said, making no attempt to move. Chad kissed his shoulder instead, which got a sleepy laugh but no further attempt at getting up.

There was a crashing noise out in the hallway, followed by a whispered 'Shit' from Troy, who seemed to have knocked over some large piece of furniture.

'He's so graceful,' Ryan mumbled. 'Like a gazelle.'

Chad laughed, but stopped abruptly when there was a loud knock on the door.

'Gabriella?' Troy was yelling. 'I think the lamp is broken. Who do you call when the lamp is broken? Is there a lamp doctor?'

'It's not Gabriella,' Chad said cautiously. 'Just me.'

'Oh, hey Chad! Can I-'

'NO!' Chad shouted. 'No, you can't come in. Sorry, I'm…er…taking a shower.'

'There's no bathroom in here,' Ryan whispered.

'OK!' Troy said cheerfully. 'See you later!' Chad and Ryan listened as Troy crashed down the stairs.

They both laughed, but there was an air of tension that hadn't been there before.

'We should go,' Ryan said. 'Like, ten minutes after each other or something.'

'Yeah,' Chad said. 'Denny's?'

'Sure.'

When Ryan arrived at Denny's (ten minutes after Chad, hood up, sunglasses on) Chad had already ordered a startling array of breakfast food.

'I didn't know what you liked so I got some of all of it,' he said.

Ryan thought briefly about his low-sugar, low-fat dance diet before reaching for something deep fried and covered in maple syrup. This boy was bad for his calorie intake.

'So…' Chad began. 'Do you think we should, um...talk? About last night?'

Ryan was suddenly anxious. Chad wasn't about to take everything he said back, was he? Ryan tried to reassure himself that Chad had not reacted badly when they woke up together but he couldn't stop overthinking.

'Uh, yeah. We should, probably,' he said, trying and failing to sound normal.

Chad reached over and placed his hand over the one Ryan was resting on the table.

'Um, I just wanted to say that I meant everything I said yesterday. I really like you.'

'Really?'

'Yeah! Of course I do. What I'm saying is, it wasn't just a party. I'm serious about this. If you are, I mean.'

Ryan smiled. 'Yes! I am. Serious about this, I mean. As long as you aren't going to...punch any more mirrors.'

It was meant to be a joke, well sort of. But Chad looked away, ashamed.

'I'm so sorry, Ryan,' he said in a small voice. 'I was such an asshole to you. I never want to be like that again, I never want to hurt you again.'

Ryan laced their fingers together. 'You already said that,' he said.

'Yeah, and I mean it. I don't want this to be a bad thing.'

'This?'

'You know. Us. I… want to make you happy.'

Ryan blushed. Was this really happening? A guy was actually saying these things to him, and it wasn't just any guy but Chad!

'So you definitely want us to be a thing then?' Ryan asked.

'Of course I do!'

'Well…' Despite his happiness, Ryan was still cautious. 'You haven't exactly seemed sure about that recently.'

Chad looked away. 'I'm so sorry, Ryan. I will make all of this up to you, I promise.'

'I just don't think I could take it if you changed your mind again'

'I won't this time, I mean it. I told you last night about my friend who was making me act like a dick, well he's gone now and I know who I am again. I know I want to be with you.'

'OK,' Ryan said quietly, 'I want to be with you too.'

The two of them smiled at each other, still holding hands across the table, and Ryan thought about kissing Chad right here at Denny's. But before he could, his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.

'Yo Chaaaaaaad!' Troy yelled, slamming the door behind him. Chad and Ryan quickly unlinked their hands as most of last night's party came barrelling towards them.

'And Ryan,' Primrose said, smirking. 'What a lovely surprise.'

Ryan gave her a warning look.

'Last night was awesome! Another legendary Bolton house party!' yelled Troy, with no regard for the other customers, most of whom were leaving anyway upon seeing the massive group of high school students enter.

'And no-one died this time!' Gabriella said, pulling a chair up to sit between Chad and Ryan.

'Actually Steven died,' Primrose said.

'Oh.'

'Remind me who that was again?' asked Troy.

'So how are everyone's hangovers?' said Gabriella, ignoring Troy as most people do.

'Yeah, not bad really,' Primrose said. 'How did you sleep, Ryan?'

Ryan kicked her under the table, but luckily no-one else seemed to notice.


	15. Chapter 15

Chad arranged his graduation photo on the window sill next to the picture of him and Ryan. He was almost completely packed ready to go to Julliard with Ryan and Kelsi. He just had to get his new textbooks out from under his bed. He reached under the bed, feeling for the books in the dark. His hand touched something round and orange. It rolled out by itself and Chad gasped. It couldn't be! He thought that that had disappeared long ago. Chad blew some dust off of the basketball as he picked it up. He looked into the orange orb, remembering the summer when his life changed forever. He was so glad that he'd managed to break free of the basketball's terrible influence. He was about to put it back under the bed, but something stopped him. Instead, he threw it in the bag he was taking to Troy's graduation party later that evening. It would be the last Bolton house party before everyone had to leave.

A car horn sounded and that was Chad's cue to leave. Ryan was picking him up for the party so Chad grabbed his bag and left.

When they arrived at the party, everyone was already there. Troy's dad was in the backyard setting up some fireworks and cooking on a barbecue.

'I'm grilling footballs!' he yelled in way of greeting.

'Haha, that's great Coach Bolton!' said Chad.

They went into the kitchen, where Troy was dancing with Gabriella's mom. Primrose was there and so was Dracula.

'Hey, where's everyone else?' asked Ryan.

'Well Gabriella's right here!' said Troy.

'Um...I'm not Gabriella,' said Gabriella's mom. 'I'm Julia.'

Troy looked shocked. He came over to Chad and Ryan and whispered, very loudly, 'I think I've been dating Gabriella and her mom?'

Soon everyone was having a great time. Taylor and Sharpay were on the karaoke machine. They were best friends now after their eventful senior year. Gabriella was consoling her mom in the corner because Troy had just dumped her. Ryan and Chad were dancing together in the hall. Chad was so glad that he didn't have to go to college without him.

'I'm lighting the fireworks!' yelled Coach Bolton from the backyard. Everyone ran outside, except Gabriella's mom who went home. As Chad watched the beautiful fireworks, he looked around at his friends and wondered what they would all do in the future, and if they would even all be together if the whole thing with the basketball hadn't happened. They had all been in that mess together, and now it was all resolved, they were closer than ever. As a huge firework lit up the sky over Troy's house, Chad grabbed the basketball out of his bag and threw it as hard as he could into the sky. It disappeared into the night and Chad thought he saw a faint orange glow in the air around him.

'Goodbye basketball,' he whispered. It was time for his new life to begin.

Troy's dad stumbled over, hugging five beer cans. 'It's a night for confessions, boys,' he slurred. 'Guess what, Troy? The basketball is your real father!'

 **THE END**


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